Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/213

 Bfl,lB».1

��I

1» ,„,

��wing down the houses, whose walls were Already wcnkened by the earthquake.

The geological characteristics of the coun- try are described in the next article : it will thererore suffice here to sny that the seismic pheuomcna seem to be iDtimately related to the geological growth of the mountflin syBtem. especially the Sierra Nevada, the elevation of which is apparently not yet completed. A commission, consisting of three mining engi- neers, under the presidency of Sr, D, Manuel Fernandez de Castro, has been appointed by tbe Spanish government to study this series of earthquakes, and has already distributed a list of thirty- three interrogatories relating not only to the time, direction, and other particulars of the earthquake shocks, but also to various atmospheric phenomena, such as the pressure, temperature, clouds, etc.

C. G. Rof'Kwoon, Jun.

��'ME SIERRA NEVADA OF SPAIN: THE SCENE OF THE RECENT EARTH- QUAKES.

The Sierra Nevada of Spain, though full of Interest for the tourist, the man of science, or the student of history, has been little visited, and almost nothing has been written about it.

This sierra forms a compact Ijody, twenty- five miles wide and iifty miles long, completely isolated, and without directly connected lateral spurs or terminal ridges. SuiTounded by an alluvial plain as it is, it bas, nevertheless, certain smaller neighbors which seem, like itself, to have been ejected from below. Its crest has been denuded by the elements, and its sides scored by brooks or torrents which diverge in all directions from the central axis, fed by the rains of spring and the melting snows of summer. Four principal streams, descending to the north-west, meet at the very foot of the Alhambra, aud unite their waters before traversing the renowned plain of La Vega. Their cascades and ripples, descending fi^m the mountain crest above, give to the adjoining valley a delicious freshness during thu torrid months of summer. To these waters is due the immense isle of verdure presented by the Vega at a time when nearly all southern Europe is scorched dry by the sun. At many points the rivers run in narrow, deep channels easily dammed. From tbeir sources to the moment when they reach the plain, their aver- age descent is one to ten, almost the maxi- mum for running waters- At that point they ■n caplured ; not a drop escapes. All the

���irrigating works and canals, the customs gov- erning the distribution of water, even the rules recalled by the strokes of the bell nightly from the minarets of the Alhambra, are the legacy of the Arabian civilization which blossomed on the plain before it was driven to a last refuge on the mountain.

On the north, tliree rivers descend to the plain of Guadiz ; but, their sources not being fed by perpetual snows, when the rainy season has passed they dry away. In consequence this plain is as sterile, bare, and forbidding as that of the Vega is green and inviting. Wherever the eye waudera, apart from the sierras, lies a reddish-gruy plateau of dusty alluvium, seamed and rent by precipitous canons. Nothing recalls the idea of life: tho desolation is as that of an unknown country, grand and, terrible. All the valleys and plains of this part of Andalusia present the same imprefisive and melancholy features. Gustave Dor^, who passed through this region many years ago, has profited by his experience to introduce memories of it in some of the most strange and fantastic productions of his pencil. This sterile region is poor, unpeopled, almost unknown, and practically cut off from com- munication with the rest of Spain.

Farther to the west is the country of the Alpujarras, so celebrated iu Moorish history for the terrible conflicta of which it was the theatre. More than one poet has celebrated the combats of the Christian and the Moor in the narrow defiles and rocky gorges of the sierra; but all these imaginary descriptions fall far short of depicting the scene as it ap- jiears in reality.

The Alpujarras are composed of two cistern- like basins, absolutely closed to the outer world, except by two narrow goi^cs cut in the rock by the rivers which traverse them. The first of these rivers, the Rio Grande de Ujijar, descends directly from the heights of the Sierra Nevada, passes by the site of that town, and. with its afl^uents, waters the basin of Ujijar, the ancient capital of the little Moorish kingdom. It issues by a deep canon, and falls into the Mediterranean by the little i)ort of Adra at no great distance. The second, the Guadalfeo, runs between the Sierra Nevada and Contraviesa, close by the former, whose slopes it drains. Emerging from the basin, it turns abruptly to the south, reaching the sea near Motril. Just before entering the gorges of the Sierra Conti-aviesa, the Guadalfeo re- ceives the brook of Beznar from a point elevated above the plain of La Vega, whence Itoabdil, the Inst of the Moors, is said to have

�� �