As seen from a ship, nothing can be more desolate than the appearance of Gibraltar, but when you get upon it, you will find fig trees, orange trees, acacias, and a profusion of odoriferous plants. You will also find woodcocks, partridges, teal, and rabbits in abundance. If you will wander up the rocks, you will also find apes of considerable size frisking about, and seeming quite at home. This is the only spot in Europe where any animal of the monkey kind is found to be a native. It is fancied that these creatures pass through caverns under the sea to Africa, which is some twenty or thirty miles across at the narrowest part. It is unnecessary to say that this is impossible. The rock of Gibraltar is perforated by a great number of natural caverns. St. Michael’s, on the south-west side, is the most famous. You enter this about one thousand feet above the level of the sea. At a little distance, you come to a spacious hall, supported by stalactite pillars. Beneath this is a series of beautiful grottoes, though difficult of access. It is said, that in some of these grottoes you can hear the sea roaring beneath, through crevices in the rock! The rock and town of Gibraltar belong to the English. The former is strongly fortified, and is considered impregnable. It came into the hands of the English in 1704, since which they have held it, though it has often been attacked and besieged. The most memorable siege commenced in 1779, and it did not cease till February, 1783. The grand attack took place in September, 1782. Beside stupendous batteries, mounting two hundred guns, there was an army of forty thousand men, led by the celebrated Duc de Crillon, in the presence of two princes of the blood. In the bay, lay the combined fleets of France and Spain. The assault was dreadful. Four hundred pieces of artillery, on both sides, were playing at once. The roar was perpetual, and the rock shook as if by an earthquake. Yet the brave garrison held out, and the attack was unavailing. The east and north sides of the Rock of Gibraltar, are by their nature inaccessible. Toward the south, also, it is very rocky and precipitous. To the west, it slopes to the town, and here the artificial batteries are erected. These are most formidable. To accommodate the operations of the garrison, there are galleries, leading from one point to another, of sufficient width for cannon carriages, and cut for nearly three miles through the very heart of the rock. Order and Disorder. “A place for everything, and everything in its place; that is my motto,” said Miss Steady. “What stuff!” said Miss Thoughtless. “What is the use of being so precise and old-maidish?” Miss Steady is a very orderly little girl, and so I must give you an account of her habits.