Setúbal, though its commercial activity is very much inferior to that of Lisbon, still exports muscat wines, delicious oranges, and salt procured from the ponds in its vicinity.[179] The sea near Setúbal and Cezimbra abounds in fish and other marine animals, and in comparison with it the Me­di­ter­ra­nean and Bay of Biscay may almost be described as deserts. Long before scientific men explored the bottom of the sea the fishermen of Setúbal hauled up from a depth of 300 fathoms immense sharks. Ordinary fish are caught in myriads, and the inhabitants of Cezimbra feed their pigs upon sardines. When Portugal was at the height of its commercial prosperity it supplied a considerable portion of Europe with fish, and almost enjoyed a monopoly in cod, which was exported even to Norway.[180]

IV.—SOUTHERN PORTUGAL. ALEMTEJO AND ALGARVE.

The mountains beyond the Tejo rarely assume the aspect of chains. For the most part they rise but little above the surrounding plateau. This region is the least attractive of all Portugal, and between the Tejo and the mountains of Algarve there are only plains, monotonous hills, woods, and naked landes. Human habitations are few and far between. The lowlands along the Tejo and {491} the coast are covered with a thick layer of fine sand resting upon clay, and they still exhibit clumps of maritime pines and holm-oaks, the remains of the ancient forests which formerly covered the whole of the country. Farther inland we reach the great landes, or charnecas, covered with an infinite variety of plants. There are heaths growing sometimes to a height of six feet, rock-roses, juniper-trees, rosemary, and creeping oaks. But the general aspect of the country is dreary, in spite of the white and yellow flowers which cover it until the middle of winter, for there are hardly any cultivated fields. The hills consist for the most part of micaceous schists, and are covered with a monotonous growth of labdanum-yielding rock-roses. This is a western extension of the zone of jarales, which covers so many hundred square miles of the Sierra Morena and other mountain regions of Spain.

Fig. 203.—MONASTERY OF THE KNIGHTS OF CHRIST AT THOMAR.

The Serra de São Mamede (3,363 feet), on the confines of Portugal, between the valleys of the Tejo and Guadiana, is the highest mountain mass of Southern Portugal; but its granitic ridges, enclosing narrow valleys between them, hardly {492} rise 1,500 feet above the general level of the plateau. A second granitic mountain mass rises to the south of the depression crossed by the railway from Lisbon to Badajoz. This is the Serra de Ossa (2,130 feet). An undulating tract of country joins it to other serras, forming steep escarpments towards the valleys of the Guadiana and Sadão, and the monotonous plain known as Campo de Beja (870 feet). The famous Campo de Ourique (700 feet), upon which 200,000 Moors, commanded by five kings, were defeated by the Portuguese in the middle of the twelfth century, forms a southern continuation of that plain. This battle, and the massacres which succeeded it, converted the plains to the south of the Tejo into deserts.

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Fig. 204—ESTUARY OF THE SADO.

Scale 1 : 350,000.