384 T R A V E L S T H R O U G H S P A IN .
R E E S T A B L E C E R EN E S T E ANO D E M I L S l E T E C I E N T O S
Y S E C E N T A OCHO, L A M A G E S T A D D E L S EN O R D O N
C A R L O S R E Y DE E S P A Ñ A A S O L I C I T U D D E L E XMO SEN
O R DON IU A N M A R T IN DE Z E R M E N O C O M A N D A N T E
G E N E R A L D E L C U E R P O DE IN G EN I E R O S , &c. &c.
In E N G L I S H .
This admirable bridge was erebled in the year 5 3 3 o f the building o f
Rome, by the great Hannibal, a Carthaginian captain, and he raif-
ed the triumphal arch which Jlill exifls at its foot, in honour o f his fa th e r
Hamilcar. This fabric, after having flood 1 9 8 5 years, was greatly damaged
and in a ruinous flate, but his Majeily Don Carlos K ing o f Spain, in
order to preferve fo rare a monument o f antiquity, ordered it to be repair-
ed in the year 1 7 6 8 , at the entreaty o f his excellency Don John Marlin
de Tfrmeno, commandant general o f engineers, ire. ire.
Martorel is a large town, replete with induitrious inhabitants,
all employed and conftantly at work ; the women
in making black lace, and the men in various ufe-
ful and laborious occupations; a little farther on, at the
village o f Efpalanguera there is a manufatory of cloth,
which maintains numbers of families ; the fame fpirit of
labour and application is univerfal every where in Catalonia;
but we now draw near to the lofty mountain o f
Montferrat, the molt Angular perhaps in the world for
its appearance, compohtion, and productions ; as much
the admiration of the naturalift, as revered by the natives
in general, from the renown o f its ianCluary, famous
for
for miracles and the extraordinary favours granted by our
lady o f Montferrat to its numerous votaries.
The whole extent o f this mountain may be about eight
leagues in circumference, its chief materials confifting
of round limeftone, firmly conglutinated with a yellow
calcareous earth and fand, not unlike the Brechia or pud-
ding-itone of Aleppo, only that the grain is coarfer and
the ftones larger than that o f the Levant, with a further
addition of round white quartz ftreaked with red, as
well as touchftone, all firmly cemented together, forming
one perfet folid mafs ; and according as the natural
bitumen which united all thefe together, has occafion-
ally given way in the courfe o f fleeting years, various
torrents o f rain water have rolled down and wafhed away
the earth, the refult o f their decompofition, and have
fplit the mountain into an infinite variety o f fhapes and
lingular appearances, forming in fome places the moft
amazing clefts and frightful precipices : in others huge
pieces of blanched and bare rock fhoot up into iharp
cones, pillars, and jagged forms, from, twenty to a
hundred feet high, exhibiting wonderful afpecls that
ftrike the eye with furprize and the mind with afto-
niihment! its wildnefs increafing in proportion as you
advance higher, infomuch that on reaching the fummit
of this enormous .pile, human reafon is loft in conje
tu r e ; but the fight is, gratified with the moft fplen-
. .. C c c did