farmers ufed to manure it with lime, to loofen the
ftrerigth of the clay, and abforb its ■ acid, but they now
begin to ufe: marl.
It is five-hours arid a half from Legafpia to Villafranca,
palling by Villareal, where the houfes are of fand-itone.
They prune the oaks every where in this country, in
the fame manner as the mulberry trees in Valencia, that
they may throw out more branches; to make charcoal
for the forges, and they cut them every eight or ten
years, as in Bifcay. There are few fprings in all thefe
hills, though it fo frequently rains, owing to the tenacity
of the foil, which impedes the filtration of the water,
fo that they are obliged to drink melted fnow from the
mountains, yet without being • troubled with the full-
throat, fo often attributed tb this eaufe, though more
probably arifing from obfhuSions in the glands for
want of perfpiration (<?}-. . Two thirds o f the inhabitants,
of this province-, pafs the days arid nights in their fmoaky
cabins, without chimnies, affirming, that the clofenefs,,
and fmoak, are conducive to health, as they dilfipate
M An ingenious traveller lately returned from Switzerland infqrms usr that he had been-
at feyeral places where the inhabitants drink no other-water than thofe o f rivers and torrents
which defcend from the ,Gla,cieus, and yet are not in the. leaft fubjeft, to the full throat; fo far
from it, he had been told,- fnow water was efteemed a preiervatiye, ajs well as the dear air of
the mountains, and that they had been obferved to diminiih. in elevated places, though always,
increafed in the vallies, when once they had begun.— Sketches of the natural, civil, and political
ftate of Switzerland, by Will. Goxe, A . M. London, 1779.
dampnefs
dampnefs, and promote perfpiration. The inhabitants
are certainly not only robuft, but are even feldom troubled
with rheums : they are moreover cheavful and fo-
eiable, having nothing of that ihynefs obferved in the
meridional provinces.
From Villafranca («), it is three leagues to Tolofa,
one of the three principal cities of Guypufcoa, and
from hence the road continues in fight of St. Sebaftians,
and Pafage, tor Irum,' the laft town in Spain. Near
this place the river Bidafoa enters the ocean, dividing
Spain from France, and at a fmall diftance from its-
mouth, the ifland of Pheafants is remarkable for having
been the place where the Pyrenean treaty was concluded,
in 1660, between "cardinal Mazarin, on the part of
France, and Don Lewis Mendez de Haro y Guzman, on
the part o f Spain,, and the match was agreed upon,
between Lewis XIV. and Dona Maria Terefa, daughter
of Philip IV. mother to the Dauphin, and grand-mother
to the Duke of Anjau, : afterwards Philip V. of
Spain, father to his prefent Majefty Charles III.
§ f Neither Legafpia, Onate, Villareal, Villaffanca, nor Irum, are to be found on the well-
engraved map of Spain; by Thomas Lopez, in 1770, who is geographer to the king, and of
the iicad'emy o f St. Ferdinand, and dedicates it to the-Prince of Ailurias, faying of this map,
that it is,' conftruido con lo mejor, que ay impreilo, manufcrito, y memorias de los natu-
rates but on the “ mapa de las carreras de poilas de Efpana,” dedicated to Charles the 3d,
by Don Ricardo Wall, in 1760, and engraved by the fa id Thomas Lopez, 1 find Villaffanca,.
Tolofa,. and.Irum, but not Legafpia, Onate, or Villareal.'.
L E T T E R