To make a brief tour of Spain, which may be done in five weeks, that is, visiting the principal places, which are now mostly on the line of railroads, should not cost over $270, and will occupy about six weeks' time, stopping at Orleans, Tours, Poitiers, Angoulême, Pau, Bayonne, Biarritz, Burgos, Valladolid, Madrid, Toledo, Cordova, Seville, Xeres, Cadiz, Gibraltar, over to Tangiers, Malaga, Granada, Valencia, Barcelona, Perpignan, Cette, Nimes, and Avignon. These places are all upon the line of railroad, with the exception of from Cadiz to Gibraltar and from Gibraltar to Tangiers and back by steamer; thence to Malaga by steamer, to Granada and back to Malaga by rail or diligence, and steamer to Valencia. If the traveler have more time, he may vary this route, visiting Portugal via Badajoz to Lisbon, or returning to Paris from Barcelona via Saragossa and Pamplona.

Spain in former years has been rarely

HISTORY.

visited by our countrymen for the reasons that few of our people speak the Spanish language, that it has been considered very expensive, and that they do not like traveling by diligence. Couriers also have dissuaded their employers from visiting this very interesting portion of Europe, because that class of people are mostly Germans or Italians, who speak English, French, German, and Italian, but rarely Spanish: a visit to Spain consequently deprives them of an employer for some months. As regards couriers, there are several excellent ones in Spain. By addressing a note to the proprietor of the Peninsular Hotel at Madrid, he would send one to meet you at Bayonne or Paris, or, if you did not wish to incur that expense, manage to get through to Madrid and employ one there. We can recommend a good one in Manuel Bazan, who may be seen at the Grand H. de Paris, Madrid. We employed him during our tour through the south of Spain and Morocco, and found him intelligent, honest, and active; he was born in Gibraltar, although a Spaniard, has been to the United States, and traveled considerable.

Spain, which constitutes nearly the whole of the southwestern peninsula of Europe (Portugal being confined to one fifth of the whole), is nearly six hundred miles from north to south; it contains 180,000 square miles, and is only one tenth smaller than France, and twice the size of Great Britain and Ireland. It is divided into three distinct regions: the south and southeast warm and fertile, the productions being those of the temperate and tropical zones; the central consisting of elevated plains, but scantily watered; the northern covered chiefly with mountain ranges, high, broken, and rugged; each region provided by nature with outlets to convey its productions to any quarter of the globe. In addition to these, the numerous railroads netting the whole kingdom, which are now nearly completed, will fully develop this formerly isolated country, rich in every mineral and vegetable which any territory is capable of producing. The variety and richness of the mines of silver, quicksilver, lead, copper, and iron are truly astonish