Following a line of ramparts along the beach, the visitor, at the time we are speaking of, came to the New Mole, with its 26-gun battery, and thence proceeded to the well-known quay of the Ragged Staff, usually employed for the landing of stores for the garrison. Ships of the line could lie along the Mole, such was the depth of water; and at the Mole head was stationed a circular battery for heavy cannon. The Rock is not easily accessible from the New Mole fort to the north end of Rosia Bay, but it was defended, like every other point, by batteries and ramparts. From the south end of Rosia Bay the cliff rose gradually to Buena Vista--so called on account of its beautiful view of the Spanish and African coasts, bathed in a glow of colour. Several guns were mounted there, and the hill towards Europa Point bore some defensive works. Thence the Rock sweeps down by the Devil’s Bowling-Green--so named, on the _lucus à non lucendo_ principle,[1] from its rugged surface--to Little Bay, where a battery stood surrounded by frowning precipices; and onward stretched the line of works and batteries to Europa Point, the southern extremity of the garrison, though not the southern extremity of the European continent. From this point frown precipitous cliffs of the gloomiest aspect to Europa Advance, where the fortifications were terminated by some few batteries. Whether the young reader can or cannot follow in every particular the foregoing description, he will at least derive from it the idea of a not insufficient system of defensive works, which did credit to the ability of the engineer-officers of the time. Every point of vantage had its battery or bastion. The natural advantages of the position were carefully utilised, and the approaches were commanded by heavy guns, which could pour on an advancing enemy a withering fire. In all, the fortifications were armed with six hundred and sixty-three pieces of artillery. The town of Gibraltar, says Drinkwater, is built on a bed of red sand. The houses were composed of different materials, principally of a solid well-tempered cement called tapia; but some of the rock-stone, plastered, and blue-washed on the outside, so as to moderate the fiery rays of the sun. These were generally covered with tiles, but the flat terraced roofs remained in the Spanish houses, and, in many, the _mirandas_ or towers, whence the inmates, without removing from home, could luxuriate in a bright and ample prospect of the Bay and neighbouring coasts. [Illustration: VIEW FROM THE SIGNAL-STATION. _Page 28._ ]