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Come to Jare, whofe environs wear a better countenance, on account of an immenfefalt-work belonging to the king. Here firft meet with olives, and going up the moun-tain, which is all of pudding-ftone, find it cut into terraces fupported by walls, and plantedwith vines, mulberries, and olives.
The road then led through a pafsinthe mountains, which prefented, I think, withoutexception, the moll {hiking fcene that I had ever beheld. I remember the impreflionthat the ocean made on me the firft time I faw it, and believe it to have been weakerthan this ; I lhall not fpend many words in attempting to defcribe what the pencil itfelfin the hands of a matter would fail to convey an adequate idea. The pafs is above amile long; the rocks feem rent afunder to make way for the river, which entirely fillsthe bottom of the chafm. The road was cut out of the rock, and was wrought withgunpowder, a work of prodigious labour and expence. It paffes on heights that varythe fcene, and that give a depth below the eye enough to be interefting. The mountainsof done, which rife on either fide, are the moft tremendous in their height, magnitude,and pendent form, that imagination can conceive. Were all the rocks of Englandpiled on one another, they would form but pigmy heaps, compared with thefe giganticand ftupendous maffes. Rocks are commonly, even in their moft bold appearances,detached parts of mountains; and, however great in themfelves, have maffes abovethem, which leffen their effeft. It is otherwife here : if we fuppofe the fkeletons ofmountains laid bare to the eye, it will be but a vague idea. Vaftnefs of fize, perpen-dicularity of form—pendant—and protruding-—every circumftance that can give a powerto inanimate nature, to command and arreft attention, is fpread forth with an impofingmagnificence through every feature of this fublime fcenery.
Pafs Coolagafe, the features of the country now begin to relax; the mountains arenot fo high, and the vales are wider. Arrive at la Pobla, after a fatiguing journey ofthirty-fix Englilh miles, more than half of which, as in general, we made on foot.Here we fared fumptuoufly, for report made the inn fo bad, that we took refuge witha fhopkeeper. It feems an extraordinary circumftance, that in thefe parts of Spain youride to the door of a private honfe, defire lodging and food, and pay of courfc whatthey demand. However, it inuft always be taken into the account of our fare, thatthe wine of all the country is fo poifoned with the boraccio, that water is the beft be-verage, unlefs annifeed brandy Ihould be to your tafte. Sallads alfo, a principal difli withthem, are not eatable, by reafon of the oil of the country being ftrong and rancid ;a quality which the inhabitants feem to think effential to good oil, for they every wheregave it the higheft praifes. This town has fome good houfes with glafs windows; and
we faw a well dreffed young lady, attended in a gallant manner by two monks.-
36 miles.
The 13th. Leave la Pobla, and crofs the river, which is fixty yards wide; it com-penfates, by the ufe made of its waters in irrigation, the mifchief it does in floods, forwe paffed two large tradls deftroyed by it. The mountains around of bold and inte-refting features; the country in general a mixture of cultivation and wafte, for fomefpace pleafing enough to the eye ; but they have no meadows, fo that our mules havemet with nothing like hay ; draw and barley are their food; and they tell us, that allover Spain it is the fame thing, with fome exceptions in watered lands for lucerne.Much corn threfliing every where.
The road leads by Monte Efquieu, the whole of which confifts of a white ftone andargillaceous marie. Look back over a great profpefl, but deftilute of wood. Ourcafoa poor place: there, as every where elfe, the firft floor is a liable, which is cleanedout not more than once or twice a year, when the land is ready to receive the dung.
The