The few hours' halt allowed me time to call upon my old friend,
M. Dautez, a Belgian artist. Apparently he is the only person in the
place who cares for science. He has made extensive collections. He owns
twenty-four coins from Carteia, whereas Florez (Medallas, Madrid, 1773)
shows a total of only thirty-three. Amongst his antiquities there is a
charming statuette of Minerva, a bronze miniature admirably finished. He
has collected the rock fauna, especially the molluscs, fossil and
modern. He is preparing an album of the Flora Calpensis. His birds'
nests were lately sold to an Englishman. All these objects, of immense
local interest, were offered by him at the lowest possible rate to the
Military Library, but who is there to understand their value? I wonder
how many Englishmen on the Rock know that they are within easy ride of
the harbour which named the 'Ships of Tarshish'? Tartessus, which was
Carteia, although certain German geographers would, against the general
voice of antiquity, make the former the country and the latter the city,
lay on both sides of the little Guadarranque stream, generally called
First River; and the row of tumuli on the left bank probably denotes the
site of the famous docks. I was anxious to open diggings in 1872, but
permission was not forthcoming: now, however, they say that the Duke of
Medina Sidonia would offer no objections.

Gib, though barbarous in matters of science, is civilised as regards
'business.' It was a treat to see steamer after steamer puff in, load up
with blue peter at the fore, and start off after a few hours which would
have been days at Patras, Zante, and Messina. Here men work with a will,
as a walk from the Convent to the Old Mole, the Mersa or water-port of a
Moroccan town, amply proves. The uniforms are neat and natty--they were
the reverse five years ago--and it is a pleasure to look upon the fresh
faces of English girls still unstained by unconsumed carbon. And the
authorities have had the good sense to preserve the old Moorish town of