fifty quintals per annum, but it is prefumed he got four
times that quantity. Near the town o f Ximena they are
building a cannon foundery. They get the ore in the
Sierra at about two leagues diitance, and it is faid to be
very good : they alfo find Ioadftones. The revenues .collected
at Marvella, Eftepona, Manilva, 8cc. are applied to
the expences at Ximena, which is five or fix leagues
from the fea with very bad roads.
The Sierra Vermeja is a range of hills which run weil-
wardly towards Malaga, and afford a fingular curiofity,
for though they run parallel, and fo clofe that their
bafes join, yet one is red and the other is white ; fnow
will not remain on the higheft, while it conftantly covers
the other. The white hills produce the cork tree and the
Encina oak; the-red has no oaks, but is covered with firs.
The white has iron ore in little lumps ; the red has fe-
veral ores but no iron. The waters o f the white hill
are martial and vitriolic; thofe of the red fulphurous,
alkaline, and with a flrong fmell like thofe of Cotterets
in France. Near this place is the lail village on the Car-
thagena fide ; the Granada hills are covered with the
golden faxifrage,. which the Spaniards call doradiEa, and
hold in repute in calculous cafes.
The plains of Lorca abound with oleander, which on
account of the bitternefs of its leaves is named amarga
adelfa,
adelfa, and ferves as a confiant comparifon in Spanifh
fonnets and novels. Near Lorca there are two antient
mines o f lead and copper, and in the Sierra towards
the fea near Carthagena, the village o f Almazarrón is famous
for its fine red earth without any mixture o f fand,
and is a principal ingredient ufed in Spanifh fnuff,
to give it that fine colour and foftnefs to the hand, and
to fix its volatility. It is fometimes called áfter the name
of the village, but more commonly almagre, and is like-
wife ufed in the glafs-houfe of St. Ildefonfo inftead o f
tripoli, to give the lad polifh to glafs, as others ufe colco-
thar o f vitriol, the caput mortuum, or refidue left at the
bottom o f the veffel after the diftillation of vitriol. Spain
alfo furniíhes colcothar nativa rubra, which is a red martial
earth loaded with vitriol, but this is a fcarce article
in commerce. The-neighbourhood o f Almazarrón
moreover affords another fingularity, and that is the
white fione called plume alum, or pfeudo ajbejlus, which
is a matter truly faline, tailing and diffolving in water
like alum, and cryilalizing in form o f feathers, from
whénceits name, being found thus in grottos, where,
aluminous minerals pafs. The other matter to which the
name o f plume alum has been given, is nothing elle but
a friable amianthus, or ajbefus.. Near Almazarrón the'
remains of a filver mine are to be Teen, which in former
times is reported to have yielded great quantities o f Giver.
A plain o f fix leagues, with reddiih foil, like the
I )' 2 neighbouring