LETTERS FROM SPAIN. 296 i"B bdl 'in LETTER XLIII. ELEVATION OF THE MOUNTAINS OBSERVATIONS RESPECTING THE MOUN TAINOUS DISTRICT WHEAT RICE HEMP FLAX SILK-WORMS WINE OIL RAPID ADVANCE OF THE FRENCH. GRANADA, JAN. 18 10. The mountains which surround the plain of Granada may be considered as the termination of that ridge which begins in Tartary, and, after crossing Asia and Europe, branches off in one direction by Switzerland and the South of France, while another range, extending to the Pyrenees, covers the surface of Spain in various directions. The range which is here called the Cordillera, joins at the source of the Tagus, near Cuenca, with another which is separated by the river Ebro from the mountains of Navarre, which are immediately connected with the Pyrenees. The loftiest points of the whole range are those on the Sierra Nevada near this city; one called Mulhacen, the height of which is 12,762 feet above the level of the sea, and the other Picacho de Veleta, which rises to the height of 12,459 feet. The whole chain, however, appears to the eye nearly of equal elevation ; but geometrical levels having been taken of various points in 1804, the exact height of the two points was then ascertained. The line at which the