GORGE DE LOS GAITANES, DEFILE OF GUADALHORCE.

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Fig. 151.—THE MOUTH OF THE GUADALQUIVIR.

Scale 1 : 200,000.

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Erosion has powerfully affected the mountains occupying the country between the basin of the Guadalquivir and the coast. Amongst the numerous river gorges, that of the Gaytanos, through which the Guadalhorce flows from the plateau of Antequera to the orange groves of Alora, is one of the wildest and most magnificent in all Spain. Only torrents enter the Me­di­ter­ra­nean, and even of the rivers discharging their waters into the Atlantic there is but one which is of some importance, on account of its great volume and the facilities it offers for navigation. This is the Guadalquivir, which rises in the Sierra Sagra, at an elevation of 5,900 feet above the sea-level. Having received the Guadalimar, its current becomes gentle, and it flows through a wide and open valley, thus differing essentially from the rivers of the Castiles, which, on their way to the sea, traverse narrow gorges. Its volume fairly entitles it to its Arab name of Wad-el-Kebir, or “large river.” The geological work performed by this river and its tributaries has been enormous. Mountain ramparts have been broken through, lakes drained, and immense quantities of soil spread over the valley. Nowhere can this work be traced more advantageously than in the valley of the Genil of Granada, for the fertile district of La Vega was covered by a lake, the pent-up waters of which opened themselves a passage near Loja. {400}

The estuary of the river has been gradually filled up by sediment. The tide ascends nearly as far as Seville, where the river is about 250 yards wide. Below that city it passes through an alluvial tract known as the marismas, ordinarily a dusty plain roamed over by half-wild cattle, but converted by the least rain into a quagmire. Neither villages nor homesteads are met with here, but the sands farther back are covered with dwarf palms, and lower down a few hills of tertiary formation approach close to the river, their vine-clad slopes affording a pleasing contrast to the surrounding solitude.

A contraction of the alluvial valley marks the exterior limit of the ancient estuary silted up by the Guadalquivir. Sanlúcar de Barrameda, a town of oriental aspect, stands on the left bank, whilst a range of dunes intervenes between the sea and the flat country on the right bank. The mouth of the river is closed by a bar, so that only vessels of small draught can enter it. These Arenas Gordas, or “great sands,” are for the most part covered with pines, and, except on their exterior face, they have remained stable since the historical epoch.

The Guadalquivir is the only river of Spain which is navigable for a considerable distance above its mouth. Vessels of 200 tons ascend it as far as Seville, a distance of sixty miles. Sanlúcar was formerly the great port of Spain, and its coasting trade is still considerable. None of the other rivers of Andalusia are navigable. The Guadalete, which enters the Bay of Cádiz, is a shallow, sluggish stream; the Odiel and the Rio Tinto are rapid torrents, and their estuary, below Huelva, has been choked up by the sediment brought down by them; while Palos, so famous as the port from which Columbus started upon his great voyage of discovery, has dwindled down to a poor fishing village.