It seems desirable to conclude with some information for the latter class of readers respecting accommodation at Palma. The hotel, which was opened a few years ago by Señor Albareda, faces the old church of St. Nicholas and the Zaforteza palace; while the avenue called the ‘Rambla’ is on one hand, and the ‘Paseo del Borne,’ leading to the port, on the other. It possesses every comfort and convenience, is admirably managed, and has a well-informed and most obliging landlord. This ‘Grand Hotel’ has a pleasant annex in the country, at Porto Pi, and the hotel in the beautiful valley of Soller is also comfortable and well managed. The visitor to Majorca is thus able to make himself acquainted with the lovely scenery, the history, and present condition of the island under the most advantageous conditions.
MAJORCA
PART II
Minorca
CHAPTER I
Minorca—Its prehistoric remains—Mago the Carthaginian—Successive occupations
The sister island of Minorca is some twenty miles E.N.E. of Majorca, and is about the size of the Isle of Wight, twenty-one miles in length by eight broad. But its smaller size and more exposed situation deprive it of advantages enjoyed by its more favoured sister. Minorca is in the shape of an irregular parallelogram, lying W.N.W. to E.S.E., and has an area of 683 square kilometres. The island is divided into two distinct regions of almost equal extent by a line running east and west. The northern half is covered with hills, for the most part bare, with two culminating points. Near the centre of the island is ‘Monte Toro,’ rising in the form of a sugarloaf to a height of 1,150 feet. Farther west is the Monte de Santa Agueda, 850 feet high. The rock consists of slates, with strata generally much contorted and of Devonian age, but capped in some places by Jurassic rocks which contain fossils and numerous impressions of plants.
Owing to the frequent northerly gales, especially in the winter, the arboreal vegetation of the northern region, and indeed of the whole island, is scanty. There are some woods of ilex and Aleppo pines in sheltered places, and the shrub vegetation consists of myrtle, a Phillirea (wild olive?), and three species of Erica.
The southern region is more sheltered and more fertile. It consists of an undulating tableland cut by profound ravines and sloping from the hills to the southern coast, where it terminates in rocky cliffs. The formation is a good building limestone of Miocene age with nearly horizontal strata. In this southern region the shrubby vegetation consists of a buckthorn (Rhamnus Alaternus) and the lentisco (Pistacia Lentiscus). But there are few trees, and the ground is excessively stony. In the ravines the vegetation becomes richer and more varied.
There are no rivers or streams, and the people are entirely dependent on wells and cisterns for their supply of water. The rocks abound in caves, some natural, but many excavated in prehistoric times. There is one vast stalactitic cave near the western coast, with smaller branch caverns, and several other caves of the same kind on a smaller scale.
One of the principal features of interest in Minorca is the number of prehistoric remains scattered over the southern region. There are a few similar remains in Majorca, but they have been used almost entirely for building materials; and in Minorca they are far more numerous and less injured.