St. George's Hall will give fome idea of them. Hall is alfo an excavation of a fimilar nature. circular form, in a projecting part of the rock, dimenfions and confiderable height. It St. George's is a cave of a and is of great I should imagine, that in case of a heavy cannonade from these galleries, the concuffion of the air in them would render the noise infupportable and endanger the falling in of the roof; but of this I do not pretend to be a competent judge. The ifthmus that feparates the rock of Gibraltar from the Spanish dominions, is a low flat fand, from whence the ingenious hiftorian of the fiege of Gibraltar concludes, that Mons Calpe must formerly have been surrounded by the fea; but the ftrong current that now runs between the coafts of Africa and Europe, which would in all probability have paffed with equal rapidity to the northward of the rock had there been a passage for it, would have continued to keep that paffage open. From this circumftance, I fhould think it has never been other than what it now is, especially as the fandy plain is not known to have increased or diminished fince it has been noticed by hiftorians. This plain, commonly called the Neutral Ground, is about half a mile across at the narrowest place, and increases in width towards the main land. On the Spanish fide, at the distance of a mile from the rock, a strong line of fortifications is carried across this plain, in length about feventeen hundred yards, reaching from the fhore of the bay to that of the Mediterranean. At each end of this line is a strong fort. That on the east fide is called Fort St. Barbara; the other, which commands the anchorage at the Old Mole, is named fort St. Philip. The extreme height of the rock is thirteen hundred feet perpendicular above the level of the sea. On the summit, a sharp ridge running from north to fouth, divides it into two unequal parts. That facing the weft is a gradual flope to the water's edge, interspersed with rocks; on this fide the town is fituated. The eastern fide, which faces the Mediterranean, is almost perpendicular from the sea, and presents a barren rocky appearance, on which are found a multitude of wild apes, which are faid to be peculiar to this rock, and of a different species from thofe found in Spain, but fimilar to those that inhabit Mons Abyla, or Apes Hill, on the oppofite coaft of Africa. The rock of Gibraltar has feveral caverns of great depth and extent; one of them, called Pocoroca, is near the fummit of the hill, directly over the centre of the town, and under Middle Hill battery. The annexed view represents the entrance of this cavern from within, with the curious pillars that seem to support the roof. These pillars, as well as the pendent rocks from the roof, are formed by the conftant dripping of water, which petrifies in its defcent, taking the most fantastic shapes. Several of these pillars have been cut down in order to be made into tables and flabs, as they are capable of receiving a high polish. |