ON leaving Casarabonela we began immediately to ascend the highest and steepest mountains we had yet encountered. For a considerable part of the ascent the mountain is composed of marble, or limestone; but near the top we saw several veins of good coal, and some of them three or four feet in thickness. This substance is noticed by the inhabitants, and is used by some of the poorer classes: for fuel; but it is by no means generally appropriated to that pose, as the sulphureous vapours which it yields are very offensive. I remarked in one part of this mountain the first schist I had seen in Spain; it was of a blueish-grey colour, but the stratum was not very thick.

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We left the highest summit of the mountain called Sierra de Junquera, which was covered with snow, on our left hand, and travelled along execrable roads, alternately ascending and descending during four hours. At the distance of half a league, on the left hand, we saw the convent of the barefooted Carmelites, which appeared to be surrounded with cultivated fields, good gardens, and vineyards,

while the rest of the country presented nothing but extensive woods of cork and oak trees, under which thousands of pigs were feeding on the acorns that had dropped. The cork tree is a species of oak, resembling those of England, but is neither so lofty nor so shady; the leaves do not fall in the winter, the acorns are somewhat bitter, and are not eaten by the people, but the swine fatten on them. There are two other species of oaks; one is an ever-green, but the other drops its leaves in the autumn; neither of them, however, grows to a very large size, nor are those in Andalusia calculated for ship-building. The ship-timber for the Spanish navy is produced in the northern part of the Peninsula.

We reached El Burgo, a town containing about 1,500 inhabitants, in five hours, and being most completely wet, were glad to surround a large fire, in company with an assemblage of muleteers, carriers, recruits, and contrabandists, who had taken shelter from a most tremendous storm. After some refreshment we left El Burgo, and ascended another mountain, of prodigious height. As we advanced towards the summit, we found that the storm, which in the comparatively low ground where we had encountered it had descended in the form of rain, had here fallen in that of snow; part of which lay on the ground, while the rest melted, and formed a torrent in the road. As we advanced to a still higher level, we found the snow had frozen, and become hard; and on the very highest part that we passed we just reached the line of perpetual snow, which, as I before noticed, is about 10,000 feet above the level of the sea, and is the highest elevation to which we ascended. On both sides of the pass through which we got over the mountain the still higher points rose majes

tically above our heads, and we were informed that, occasionally, the frozen snow fell into the pass in such quantities as for several days to block the road entirely.

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From the top of the pass we first saw the rich plain on which this city stands; for, though on an elevation of 1,500 yards above the level of the sea, the higher mountains around it give it the appearance of a valley, which is richly adorned with corn fields, fruittrees, and transparent streams. Four of the highest peaks, which in a clear day are visible at Cadiz, retain the snow, which is preserved through the summer in caverns, and is sent, packed in chaff, for the supply of Cadiz, Seville, and Gibraltar.

On descending into the plain, by tremendous roads, we got into a warmer climate, and were surrounded by trees of every variety of verdure. About a league from this city the ruins of Acinipo, vulgarly called Old Ronda, are situated: they are very extensive, and the vestiges of the wall, which formerly surrounded the city, are easily traced. Within this wall is a pile, which was evidently a Roman amphitheatre; though at present there are only eight rows of seats entire, there is reason to believe from the ruins, that the account we received of there having been originally twenty-eight, is not incorrect. It must certainly have been much larger than that at Italica, near Seville. One part of the outer wall is in a state which enabled me to form a judgment of its height, which I calculate to be nearly seventy feet: it is thrown down, and reclines against a hill, but the solidity of the cement retains the fragment together. Within these walls another edifice may be distinctly traced, which is

supposed to have been a temple; it originally formed a square of two hundred feet, and the interior was divided into apartments of a quadrangular form, about twenty-two feet square. The marble pavement of this temple was taken up in 1650, and removed by an antiquary, Don Rodrigo de Ovalle, to this city, at the expence of the Cabildo.

The aqueduct which conveyed water to the antient city is entire for a considerable distance; and I should judge that Acinipo has not been inhabited since the time of the Romans, from the form of the arches of this building, for all of them are manifestly the work of that people, without any mixture of Moorish additions. The whole of these ruins occupies fifty acres of land, exclusive of those without the walls, which are very extensive, though but thinly scattered, and many of the stones which composed the buildings have been removed to build the houses in Ronda. From inscriptions and coins which have been discovered here, it appears to have been a to have been a municipal town of the Romans, and to have had a mint, for many of the pieces coined here have the name of the town between an ear of wheat, and another of barley; on one an inscription is preserved, which celebrates the family of Frontoni, which has resided here so low down as the last century, and gave a name to an estate in this vicinity.

Some of the Spanish antiquaries have contended that Acinipo was the antient Munda, near which place the decisive battle between Cæsar and the Pompeys was fought, which eventually terminated their important struggle. Those who maintain this opinion assert, that the descriptions of the ground found in the antient historians

can only apply to this situation; that the river, the marsh, and the city, are plainly such as are detailed by Hirtius; and they point out the hill to which Bogud the Moorish king retired with his Numidian horse, at the first onset, and whence he marched, at the close of the day, to attack the camp of Labienus Pompey, by which the fate of the battle was decided. The best authorities place the scene of this battle farther to the South-east, near the town, still called Munda, or Monda, between Marvella and Alora; but those who oppose them assert, that the plain near that place is much too confined to admit of two such armies being formed, and attribute the error into which their opponents have fallen, to their having paid more attention to the name than to the situation. Without attempting to decide such a question, to which I am utterly incompetent, I can only remark, that the extensive plain near this antient city is well calculated for the theatre of such an action; and that the country around is adapted, by its fertility, for supplying numerous armies, which certainly is not the case near the town of Monda.

Our being detained to view Acinipo caused us to arrive here after dark; and the evening was very cold. All things are good or bad rule, I must say, that the

by comparison: and, judging by this Posada de las almas, in Ronda, is a very good house. It is true it contains no provisions; but our servants went to the shops, and purchased a kid and some vegetables, which made an excellent stew, and we bought some red wine, equal in flavour to Burgundy, and by far the best that I have tasted in Spain. We had a large pan of charcoal in the room; and after our meal, good straw beds, with mats of Esparto