surprised by hearing that the Governor's lady has given a splendid ball, or that his Excellency has entertained a number of distinguished persons _at the Convent_. The gardens command a delightful view of the bay, and are remarkable for large bushes of myrtles and roses, beautiful fuchsias, and geraniums, whilst the finest grapes, figs, pomegranates, peaches, apricots, and melons are profusely produced without requiring artificial heat or the protection of glass. The climate is too hot for the growth of apples, pears, gooseberries, currants, or raspberries. Oranges are very abundant, but are not palatable when gathered from the tree, as they are all of the Seville or bitter kind, and are used for making marmalade, which is highly valued in the sultry months when butter is unattainable. Although this interesting and impregnable possession is so generally termed the _Rock_ of Gibraltar, there is a considerable portion of its surface highly capable of cultivation. The most prevalent weeds are the nasturtium, snapdragon, and convolvulus; and there is an indigenous pea, the blossom of which is exquisitely beautiful in appearance, but completely scentless. At the termination of the rainy season, a plant springs up in great profusion in the ravines and watercourses. It is about a foot in height, and the blossoms are very pretty, some of the plants bearing white flowers, some red, and others blue. The Spaniards call it "Don Pedro," and the English have named it "Four o'clock." The petals open about that hour in the afternoon, and the blossoms continue expanded, and diffusing a delightful fragrance until daybreak, when they invariably close up. The Spanish name is derived from a fable, which describes Don Pedro to have been a confirmed rake, who slept all the day and spent the night in revelling, until an indignant fairy transformed him into a plant, which retains his habit. The east side of Gibraltar is washed by the Mediterranean, and there are very few guns mounted along that line, of which four-fifths are totally inaccessible. The signal station is at the summit of the mountain, and from the parapet wall, beside the flagstaff, a pebble can be dropped into the water with a direct fall of fourteen hundred and ninety-four feet. The rock formation on the entire territory is exclusively limestone, and I broke off some of it at the station, and found it a complete mass of concrete shells, whereby it is manifestly proved that the mountain must have been originally in a submarine position. The strait between it and Barbary is more than fourteen miles in breadth, and I was informed that the depth of water midway was three thousand six hundred feet.