Scale 1 : 3,700,000.

MENORCA, or MINORCA, twenty-four miles to the east of Majorca, is generally level, its culminating point, Monte Toro, in the centre of the island, only attaining a height of 1,171 feet. The strong northerly winds which sweep over its plains cause the trees to turn their branches in the direction of Africa, and orange-trees find shelter only in the barrancas, or ravines, which intersect them. The climate is less pleasant than that of the neighbouring island, and the soil less fertile, for, consisting for the most part of limestone, it rapidly absorbs the rain. There are two ports and two cities, one at each extremity of the island, which from time {427} immemorial have claimed precedence. Ciudadela (7,500 inhabitants) enjoys the advantage of closer proximity to Majorca, but its harbour is bad. Port Mahon (15,000 inhabitants), on the other hand, possesses an admirable port, and Andreas Doria says with reference to it that “June, July, and Mahon are the best ports of the Me­di­ter­ra­nean.” The English made Mahon a wealthy city, but its trade fell off immediately when they abandoned it in 1802.

Fig. 166.—VIEW OF IBIZA.

VI.—THE VALLEY OF THE EBRO. ARAGON AND CATALONIA.

The central portion of the valley of the Ebro is as distinctly separated from the remainder of Spain as is that of the Guadalquivir. It forms a vast depression, bounded by the midland plateau of Spain and the Pyrenees, and if the waters of the Me­di­ter­ra­nean were to rise 1,000 feet, this ancient lake, which existed until its pent-up waters had forced themselves a passage through the mountains of {428} Catalonia, would be converted into a gulf of the sea. The Pyrenees in the north, the barren slopes of the plateaux to the south and south-west, form well-defined boundaries, but in the north-west the plain of the Ebro extends beyond Aragon, into a country inhabited by men of a different race.

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Fig. 167.—THE PITYUSES.

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