The Story of EclipsesChambers, George F. (George Frederick)
History
The Story of Eclipses
Chambers, George F. (George Frederick)
Eclipses
NOVELDA (pop. 8000), a station on the Alicante and Madrid Railway, in a
beautiful valley about 20m. N. of Alicante.
In addition to the above places it must not be forgotten that both
Oporto at one end of the zone of totality and Alicante at the other are
within the track of the shadow, but the question of the meteorological
conditions of the atmosphere at these places (on the seaboard as they
virtually are) has to be considered.
A traveller from England to Portugal or Spain by sea has the following
choice of routes:—
1. _Southampton to Oporto_, fortnightly, on Fridays, by the steamers of
the “Royal Mail Steam Packet Co.” Fare, first-class return, about £11.
Time, about 54h. The return tickets are conveniently grouped in various
ways, _e.g._ Southampton to Oporto, and back from Vigo or Lisbon; or
Southampton to Lisbon and back, or back from Vigo (_but not back from
Oporto_). Where the booking is to Vigo, or Lisbon, of course the local
railway fares have to be paid in addition. Lisbon is 209m. S. of Oporto;
Vigo, 110m. N. of Oporto. One objection to making any use of Vigo is the
extra Custom-house formalities which have to be gone through on the
frontier, and Spanish Custom-house officials are specially
objectionable.
2. _Liverpool_ to _Corunna_, _Carril_, _Vigo_ and _Oporto_, fortnightly,
on Thursdays, by the steamers of the “Pacific Steam Navigation Co.”
Fares, to the Spanish ports, first-class single, £6, 10s., return, £9,
15s.; second-class single, £4. To the Portuguese ports, first-class
single, £8, return, £12; second-class single, £5. Time, about 4 to 5
days. This does not mean that the steamers are very slow, but they call
also at La Rochelle, in France.
3. _London_ (Irongate Wharf) to _Oporto_, at intervals of 3 weeks, on
Thursdays, by the steamers of the “General Steam Navigation Co.” Fares,
first-class single, £4 (no return tickets issued; no second-class). The
steamers of this line are inferior to all the others.
4. _London_ (Tilbury) to _Gibraltar_, weekly, on Thursdays, by the
“P. & O.” steamers. Fares, first-class single, £10, return, £16. Time, 4
to 5 days.
5. _London_ (Tilbury) and _Plymouth_ to _Gibraltar_, fortnightly, on
Fridays, by the steamers of the “Orient Co.” Fares and time the same as
the “P. & O.”
Travellers journeying to Oporto from England will probably not attempt
to do any more local sight-seeing than what can be readily accomplished
by simple railway trips in Portugal to or from Lisbon; but travellers
landing at Gibraltar will have it within their power to visit some of
the important towns of Southern Spain, such as Granada, Seville,
Cordova, Toledo, Cadiz, Malaga, &c.
An Eclipse excursionist who finds himself at Gibraltar, and who wishes
to avoid as much as possible land travelling in Spain by going on to
Alicante and stationing himself in that neighbourhood, must take
shipping locally at Gibraltar. There are Spanish steamer services from
Gibraltar, and Malaga, to Alicante.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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