Of The Two Hills Or Pillars, The Most Remarkable,
When Viewed From Afar, Is The African One, Gibil Muza.
It is the
tallest and bulkiest, and is visible at a greater distance; but
scan them both from near, and you feel that all your wonder is
engrossed by the European column.
Gibil Muza is an immense
shapeless mass, a wilderness of rocks, with here and there a few
trees and shrubs nodding from the clefts of its precipices; it is
uninhabited, save by wolves, wild swine, and chattering monkeys, on
which last account it is called by the Spaniards, Montana de las
Monas (the hill of the baboons); whilst, on the contrary,
Gibraltar, not to speak of the strange city which covers part of
it, a city inhabited by men of all nations and tongues, its
batteries and excavations, all of them miracles of art, is the most
singular-looking mountain in the world - a mountain which can
neither be described by pen nor pencil, and at which the eye is
never satiated with gazing.
It was near sunset, and we were crossing the bay of Gibraltar. We
had stopped at Algeciras, on the Spanish side, for the purpose of
landing the old governor and his suite, and delivering and
receiving letters.
Algeciras is an ancient Moorish town, as the name denotes, which is
an Arabic word, and signifies "the place of the islands." It is
situated at the water's edge, with a lofty range of mountains in
the rear.
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