Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/816

 800 GIBRALTAR foreigners are allowed to remain only during specified periods, and on giving security for good behavior. The principal buildings are the residences of the governor and lieutenant governor, the admiralty, naval hospital, bar- racks, and storehouses. There are also Prot- estant and Roman Catholic churches, four Jewish synagogues, seven regimental and two public schools, a theatre, several hotels, a lu- natic asylum, and an almshouse. The garri- son library, founded in 1793, contains upward of 20,000 volumes. The water used in the town and by the garrison is collected entirely from the roofs in the rainy season and kept in tanks under the houses. Although a free port, Gibraltar has but little trade. British manu- factures for the Barbary states and for other countries bordering on the Mediterranean are distributed through it to some extent. The chief imports are cotton and woollen goods from England ; tobacco, rice, and flour from the United States; sugar and rum from the West Indies ; and wines, silks, spices, tea, and wax from the East. The chief export is wine. The revenues are usually about 30,000, and the expenditures nearly the same. The en- tire administration of affairs is in the hands of the military governor. The bay of Gibral- tar, sometimes called Algeciras bay, is formed by the promontory of Gibraltar on the east and the mainland terminating in Point St. Garcia on the west. It is 4|- m. wide from E. to W., and about 6 m. long from 1ST. to S. Its depth of water, which is 260 ft. at the entrance, gradually diminishes toward the head of the bay, affording good anchorage. The tide rises 4 or 5 ft. Several small streams empty into it on the west and north. Opposite Gibraltar, , Gibraltar. on the W. side, is the Spanish town of Alge- ciras. On the British side shipping is pro- tected by two long moles. The strait of Gib- raltar, the channel connecting the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, lies between the southern- most part of Spain, from Cape Europa to Cape Trafalgar, and the African coast opposite, from Ceuta point on the east to Cape Spartel on the west. Its length from E. to W. is about 36m. The narrowest point is S. of Tarifa, where the opposite coasts are but 9 m. apart. From Eu- ropa to Ceuta point is about 15 m., and from Trafalgar to Spartel about 25. The greatest depth of water is 960 fathoms. Through the strait a strong central current, from 3 to 6 m. an hour, sets constantly from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean ; and two smaller currents, one along each coast, ebb and flow with the tide, running alternately into the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The excess of water thus flowing into the latter sea is necessary to supply the loss by evaporation. The rock of Gibraltar, though well known to the ancients, was not occupied until a comparatively modern period. By the Phoenicians it was called Alube, which the Greeks corrupted into Calpe. Ceuta, the African point opposite, called by the English Ape's hill, was the ancient Abyla. These two hills constituted the pillars of Her- cules, named, not from the Greek hero, but from the Tyrian deity, whose worship the Phoenicians introduced into all their settle- ments. The strait was long regarded as the western boundary of the world. The value of Gibraltar as a strategic point was first dis- covered by the Saracens, who, under their leader Tarik (or Tarif) ben Zeyad, landed there in April, 711. In the following year Tarik built a fortification on the height, and it was called thenceforward after his name. In 725