ATLANTIS IN SPAIN E.M.WHISHAW THIS RARE 1928 CLASSIC ON ATLANTIS, SPAIN & ANCIENT MEGALITHS IS BACK IN PRINTATLANTIS IN SPAIN Elena Maria Whishaw Original Title: ATLANTIS IN- ANDALUCIA Published in 1928 by Rider & Co. London‘The Atlantis Reprint Series: Atlantis In Spain by E. M. Whishaw The History of Atlantis by Lewis Spence The Riddle of the Pacific by J. ML. Brown Atlantis In Spain by Col. A. Braghine ‘Atlantis Mother Of Empires by Stacy Judd Secret Cities of Old South America by H.T, Wilkins Ancient Europe & the Mediterranean, Lost Cities of North & Central America Lost Citles & Ancient Mysteries of South America Lost Cities of Ancient Lemuria & the Pacific Lost Cities & Ancient Mysteries of Africa & Arabia Lost Cities of Chin, Central Asia & India ‘The Mystic Traveller Serte In Secret Mongolia by Henning Haslund (1934) ‘Men & Gods In Mongolla by Henning Hasiund (1995) In Secret Tibet by Theodore illion (1937) Darkness Over Tibet by Theodore Ilion (1938) Danger My Ally by F-A. 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King ‘The Fantastic Inventions of Nikola Tesla by Nikola Tesla ‘Man-Made UFOs: 1944-1094 by Robert Vesco & David Hatcher Childress Write for our free catalog af exciting books end tapesPREFACE Iris my duty and to a certain extent my pleasure to begin this book by stating in the clearest possible terms that I take the sole responsibility for the conviction expressed in it that the remarkably developed prehistoric civilisation of which relics abound at Niebla, in what was the Kingdom of Tartessus previous to the Carthaginian invasion about ‘560 8.c., derived more or less directly from that of the lost continent of Atlantis. As acting directress of the Anglo-Spanish-American School of Archwology established in February of 1914 under the patronage of His Gracious Majesty King Alfonso XIII, with a Vice-Presidency and assistant directorate including a number of distinguished professors and amateurs of archeology and anthropology, I am precluded from taking any part in my official character in the ever-extend- ing Atlantean controversy. ‘Thus the English lady who organises the extensive investigations and excavations authorised by the Spanish Government and carried on by the School, under the gis of its Honorary President, the Duke of Medina Sidonia and Count of Niebla, whose family have owned the great Castle of Niebla since it was bestowed on the first Count of that title in 1297, with funds subscribed by the Duke of Alba, the Marquess of Bute, Sir Horace Rumbold, Sir Max Muspratt, the Compafiia ‘Trasatlantica, the Rio Tinto Company, the Compaiia Sevillana de Blectricidad, Mr Archer Huntington, Dr Porter of Harvard University, M. Rudolphe Luscher of Zurich, Don Jose Garcia Berdoy of Antequera, Mr J. G. Van 56 Preface Zandt of California, and many others who have contributed morally or materially to the investigation and excavation of the relies of antiquity in which the Iberian Mlipla is so extraordinarily rich—that lady has neither part nor lot in this book, which is a purely private exposition of opinion. The scientific entity which I had the honour of founding with the aid of my husband, the late Bernhard Whishaw, B.A., of Oxford, welcomes attention paid to its work by archzologists of whatever school of thought, and what certain learned personages have termed, in Spanish, French, or German, the “ phantasies ” or “absurdities ” of “Dofia Elena,” as I am affectionately called by my Nicbla friends, regarding the colonisation of Tartessus by Atlanteans any time from 12,000 to 30,000 or 40,000 years ago, really have nothing whatever to do with the School as such. Tt would indeed be grievous if my personal views on the point had the effect of discouraging anybody of more orthodox scientific faith from informing himself as to the remains of past ages to be seen in and around Niebla. For always, day in and day out, week after week, and ‘year after year for over quarter of a century, during which Thave been studying the prehistory and prehistoric archee- ology of Tartessus on the spot (it is now twenty-six years since I have been out of Spain), I have aimed to collect knowledge from whatever quarter, which sooner or later would furnish the key to the extraordinarily advanced pre- historic civilisation of my beloved adopted country. myself can find none save in the theory of the Atlantean colonisation in the dawn of the Copper Age. I do not ask anybody to accept my conclusions : all I say is that we have such and such evidence of an advanced civilisation prevailing here at least ten thousand years B.C. I personally am con- vinced that at some period yet to be dated by science, this civilisation was implanted by colonists from Atlantis. But whether in my private capacity or as directress of the Anglo-Preface 7 Spanish-American School of Archeology, I welcome with ‘open arms anybody desirous of seeing for himself the incom- parable ancient monuments that we have excavated in and around Niebla, and promise him a fair field for investigation unhampered by one word about Atlantis, I go further still, for I am ready, not to say eager, to listen to other theories of the origin of what the late Dr Nordau called “ the eternal enigma of the origin of the Iberian civilisation,” and will most gladly study any argument or suggestion in that direction, so long as it is not based on the conventional assumption that this civilisation could only have reached ‘Tartessus from Egypt or the Basque Provinces. ‘My theory, to sum it up concisely, is that Plato’s story is, ‘corroborated from first to last by what we find here, even the Atlantean name of his son Gadir, who inherited that part of Poseidon’s kingdom which lay beyond the Pillars of Hercules and ruled at Gades, having its echo in the traditional Gadea on the Rio Tinto in the jurisdiction of Nicbla, an ancient mill under the shadow of a Stone Age fortress, relies of which still stand. Rodrigo Caro, writing in Sevilla in 1626, quotes a legend that Nicbla was the first place to be colonised “ after the great drought.” ““‘The few people who survived, fleeing from their devastated country, came to Spain, and seeing trees growing and finding no one to interfere, settled down here”... “and so the whole world was populated once more.” T take it that this is a folk memory of the drying-up of the once-fertile Sahara in consequence of climatic changes caused by the repeated volcanie disturbances in and around the Atlantean mainland which ended in its final sub- mergence. T have not found that legend except in Rodrigo Caro. But here in Niebla we have a flood lore which to the best8 Preface of my knowledge is unique, and can only, I think, have sprung from the folk memory of great tidal waves created by volcanic action in the Atlantic. T make no sort of attempt to date that “ great drought.” Thave no scientific qualifications to justify any such calcula- tions. I do not aim to lay down definitions : I only wish to show the great field for research that we have found here, and while it is my own firm belief that Atlantis began to obtain the gold, silver, and copper of which Plato tells us from the mines of the Rio ‘Tinto long ages before Solon recorded the glories of that city, the evidence for the fact is to me so much more important than the actual period that I am perfectly willing to leave to anthropologists at large the decision as to when precisely in the development of humanity those gigantic extensions of pre-Roman, pre- Carthaginian, and pre-Phenician slag were laid down, round about what always has and apparently always will be the ‘greatest copper-mining industry in the world. Given, then, my premise that at some period in time there was a colonisation of Andalucia and especially of Nicbla by immigrants from North Africa, who brought with them the arts, industries, and traditions of Atlantean culture, I have to show the evidence for my belief, collected bit by bit in circumstances of real difficulty. Six months after our School was founded in Seville the war broke out, and in 1915, after my husband’s death, I was compelled for Feasons not necessary to mention, to leave the Andalucian capital, as it proved for good and all. Exchange went down to 16 pesetas to the £, donations for our work of course ceased, and when first I retired to Niebla, where I had bought a hovel built against the Gate of the Ox on the town wall with an acre of land adjoining, I lived there literally alone and, like the peasants around me, limited my food-bill to a peseta a day. But I had put by some £5, left over from a donation of £100 made by Mr Henry Wellcome inPreface 9 1913 for investigations relating to prehistoric remains in Andalucia, and with that money I employed an old man of seventy-five to do some digging on the north bank of the Rio Tinto, by kind permission of the owner of the estate, the late Don Serafin Lopez of Huelva, who to the day of his death in October 1927 never ceased to display the most cordial interest in my researches there and elsewhere. ‘My old digger was not only an admirable worker, not- withstanding his advanced age, but it was from him that T learnt during the long summer days we spent together ‘many interesting and significant local traditions, which he related with complete faith in their literal veracity as we sat by the copper-coloured river under the shade of the ‘eucalyptus plantation, whose coolness was so grateful in the burning heat of the August siesta hour. “How do you know this place is called the Desembarca- dero?” T asked. “Everybody knows it,” he replied, “and it was always ‘open to the town until So-and-So’s father took possession of the Tower and closed the footpath as you see.” Desembarcadero means “‘landing-place,” and the old ‘man’s talk opened my eyes once for all to the true purpose of a great staircase leading down from the Gate-Tower of the Desembarcadero to the water's edge, 30 feet below the foot of the town wall and at that time seemingly object- less, for, since the arbitrary building-up of the opening in the ruined gate-tower, the whole place had become a Jungle of wild vegetation, completely concealing the works of man lying under the rampant growth of weeds and decayed vegetable matter springing from tons on tons of yellow silt deposited from year to year by the winter floods of the Rio Tinto, It is hardly too much to say that I gradu- ally built up my whole theory of the transcendental part played by the great mine in the history of civilisation from that detail of old Antonio's legendary lore. My readers10 Preface will judge as we go on how valuable a key the almost forgotten name given by him to the beautiful spot was to prove in my protracted study of prehistoric Niebla, Another tradition related by Antonio was one explaining. the origin of the name given to the largest and most complete of the five great gate-towers of the city, which soon after T obtained permission from the local authorities to appro- te and occupy, after buying out a family who had Inhabited i for forty years. This is the Gate of the Ox of Niebla, and the legend carries us straight back to the days when the Iberians of Tartessus were sun-worshippers who annually sacrificed an ox to their sun-god. I was so much impressed by the story and all it suggested that when, shortly after, I learnt that I could acquire the right of possession, I hastened to secure it without attempting to bargain, although the village intermediary who conducted the negotiations considered the £30 asked exorbitantly high. £30 for a great tower of prehistoric origin, faced with stone under Rome, and having Arabic arches of the tenth or cleventh century ingenuously introduced under the Roman, with the jointing visible to the naked eye !_ I proceeded to strengthen and repair portions of the structure within and without which were in so dangerous a state that another winter's storms might have brought down a considerable part of it, and now it is the main entrance, of truly regal proportions, to the Museum and hostel of the School, which, have grown and increased until the buildings constructed for the purpose extend to over three hundred feet long by an average sixteen wide. On this work I laid out by degrees most of the small capital I still possessed (when the pescta began to rise again) and had nothing left to make excavations on a serious scale. But soon after the war ended I had a visit from Sir ‘Max Muspratt, President of the United Alkali Company, whose Spanish mines lie not far from Niebla, and fromPreface 1 that day our fortunes began to turn. He was so much interested in what he saw and what I told him of the pos- sibility of making valuable discoveries here that he sent me a cheque for £100 to lay out according to my own judgment, and I can never be grateful enough to him, not only for the money but still more for the encouragement his recognition of the importance of the work gave me at a time when I had been reduced almost to despair of ever obtaining help to carry it on. He is one of the few protectors of the School to whom I have spoken of my Atlantean theories, and I remember how he smiled at my enthusiasm and said: “Well, to tell you the truth I have rather an affection for Atlantis myself!” Since then donations have come in fairly steadily, and although the School, like all such voluntary institutions, never has nearly as much money as it wants, it seldom has a quite empty purse now, and naturally the more attention is called to what we already have to show, the easier it will become to raise money in the future. Tam constantly asked why I do not take steps to advertise what we have done and are doing. I can only say that at seventy-two what remains of lifeis too short to direct excava- tions, often at a distance from the town, receive visitors to the Museum, and provide accommodation for students and artists wishing to spend weeks and sometimes months here, and make press propaganda single-handed, in addition to collecting and putting into shape, however inadequately, the mass of material of which this volume gives a slight sketch. OF course I had read Mr Lewis Spence’s books, The Problem of Atlantis and Atlantis in America, when they came out, but I had been disappointed to find him of the opinion that the Atlantean culture was conspicuous by its absence from Southern Spain. What, then, was my joy to12 Preface find in his later work, The History of Atlantis, passages attributing the greatest possible importance to our dis- coveries here, and complete acceptance of my theory of the Atlantean influence in the (to me) otherwise inexplicable remains of masonry and skilled hydraulic engineering dating at least from the dawn of the Copper Age and the Neolithic exploitation of the Rio Tinto mines? ‘True, Mr Spence does not mention the intimate part played, as I believe, in the earliest Ibero-Atlantean relations by the exploitation of the historic mine, but doubtless that is because the pages he devotes to our work were edited before we had the—to ‘me—conclusive evidence that I shall presently offer on this point. Notwithstanding my admiration of Mr Spence’s exhaus- tive study of the subject on both sides of the Atlantic, T am bbold enough to differ radically from him in regard to the literal correctness of Plato's description of the gold, silver, and orichalcum, otherwise copper, used to adorn the palace of Poscidon. I have good authority for saying that all these metals were mined here from Neolithic times, end— a fact of comparatively recent discovery—the prehistoric slag at Rio Tinto shows that copper was the latest to be worked. I am told that the prehistoric copper slag is found above silver slag, and gold is found below the silver. And incredible though it may appear, the silver is more perfectly extracted than the copper in these vast expanses of escoria, and the gold is more skilfully worked than either. Is this ‘not proof positive of an advanced civilisation in this part of the world ages before history began ? My conviction of the immense antiquity of our prehistoric civilisation here is supported by my friend and master in the little that I know of anthropology, Dr de las Barras de ‘Aragon, Professor of Anthropology at the University of ‘Madrid, whose reputation is European. At the date of writing he has just paid his now annual visit to the SchoolPreface 13 Museum and excavations, classifying our prehistoric monu- ments, like Mr Spence, as possibly Azilian, and while, as a true scientist, he does not yet accept as in any way proved their Atlantean origin, he says that “the ever-increasing mass of evidence that the primitive Tartessian culture was closely linked up with that of North Africa makes it rash to regard the believers in Atlantis a5 worthy of anything but respect, because there is such an enormous amount to learn about the evolution of man that the romance of to-day may become the commonplace of to-morrow.” Meanwhile he urges me to get this book ready for publica- tion as soon as possible, insisting that even the most humble contribution to the study of the origins of the prehistoric civilisation of Andalucia is of value in the present chaotic state of opinion on the subject, and assuring me that “the perseverance and constancy” I have devoted to the search for an explanation of these Niebla monuments will amply ‘excuse any errors I may make in a technical scientific sense. While deprecating his far too kind words about my archzo~ logical researches, I fully see his point of view, and am therefore doing exactly what he recommends, i. losing no moment in finishing the book, in the hope that, notwith- standing all its faults, it may increase the interest roused by Mr Spence’s reference in our discoveries here. T cannot close this preface without acknowledging also the endless help and encouragement I have received for years past from another very dear friend, hardly less dis- ‘tinguished in his own line than Dr de las Barras de Aragon ; bbut we are agreed that for certain reasons I must not quote him as a believer in Atlantis, much as he sympathises with my efforts to follow in Mr Spence’s wake in adducing evidence of the Atlantean tradition in Europe as well as America, I can only say, therefore, that hotly as he and Thave argued and continue to argue both viva voce and by correspondence over points in the Atlantean hypothesis onPreface 1, I could never have got so far as I have done without his kind and constant research on my behalf jin the London libraries for books not available in Spain, and his active help in directing our excavations, during his frequent visits to Niebla. ‘To many other friends I offer grateful thanks for help and encouragement, moral and material, and if the reading of my book gives them a pleasant hour of agreement or disagreement, of interest, of amusement, or even of scientific “ despige,” after all variety is the spice of life and at least, if they fee! sarcastic, that is better than being bored. Tn conclusion, to mark once for all the wide difference between the quite English Mrs Bernhard Whishaw, authoress of two or three orthodox works on Spain and Spanish history and directress of the Anglo-Spanish- American School of Archeology with its strictly conven- tional lines of research, and the free lance responsible for Atlantis in Andalucia, I sign myself according to the ancient ‘custom by which the married woman in Spain retains her ‘maiden name, which is that of both her parents, Evga Mania Witttams y Winsor, ‘Viupa pz Wutsaw (Don BeRnanpo). Adopted Daughter” of the City of Niebla.Prerace TL. um. Vv. VI. vu. vil. IX. CONTENTS Part I ARCHEOLOGICAL Parpournie Restams at Nua ‘Tun Quens’s Townr or Nipoia ‘Tue Casts or Nowa. Hyprauute ENonvesnine ar NIESLA Hiyoravutc Excmvemino-—continued. ‘Tue Ancuavr Ports on THe Estuary oF Te Rio ‘Tuxro AND Tur Fork MeMony oF ATLANTIS IN 1492 ‘Tux Saxo Dunes, Tue SusTERRANEAN RIVER, FOL ‘Mewortns oF THE FLoop, aND Tus Discovery or rue Neouimiuc Conpurr at NUmsLa ‘Hypaautic ENomeennc at Ronpa Preuistoric MixiNc at Rio Tinto AND AT Numa. ‘Tue Bronze Ace at Nisa AND E.stWHERE IN ‘Tanressus ‘Tanressus iv History. 5 3 38 B 87 19 135 15216 XI, XII xIV. XVII. Contents Past Il ETHNOLOGICAL, ‘Tue Onicin oF THE IneRIAN Rack, PREHISTORIC ‘Sums at Nios, ‘Tae Fusion oF Lipyans wort Inspiaxs 1 THE Copper Age, THE Lipy-Tanresstans PoLYGoNAL Masonay in Lisya AND ANDALUCIA. ‘Tae Liny-Tanresstan Sunce, Retictous Tra- DITIONS IN TARTESSUS AND AFRICA ‘Tue Teapus or Hencuiss aND THe SUN Temple ‘av SEVILLE—oR Tuansis ‘Tae MarataRcHare 1s LIBYA AND IN ANDALUCIA ‘Maxnens ano Customs. CATTi-nRsepIN, AGRI- couture, Foon, ano Dasss . Horses, Carrs, aND CHARIOTS. JEWELLERY AND ‘Heap- presses Epiocue 3 a8 235 267 2802 33, 4 16. cs 18, 9. 23. 25. 26. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ‘Tue Lapy or Bice... senha ‘Tae Neourrute Necrorouis oF ALBUROL ‘Taz Gare oF tue Ox oF Niena Monourris oF ‘TALLISCA SLATE IN THE RUINED Dome of La Avousnia, Nima Anraracts oF TALLISCA SLATE IN THE MUSEUM AT ‘NIERLA Patgourritic Anreracts 1 THE Museum at NUEBLA A DeTAIL oF THE PREHISTORIC CHAMBER IN THE Quam’s Tower. fio A Darain oF PRiMitive “soRMicoN” IN THE Cir¥ Wau a A Detan, oF Taz Bien Venipa Conpuir | ‘A Section oF Tix Prewstoric GALLERY A Deran, or ri: Roman Gatuery ‘Tue Bu oF tas Rio Tovro at Nuenua iN 118 [NATURAL STATE ‘Tus Desemmancapso Poot.” A Dera oF THE ROMAN CoNDUIT TAKEN FROM THE BED oF THE Rio Tinto BANKS OF SILT DEPOSITED BY FLOODS ABOVE THE ‘GREAT WALL OF THE PaeutsvoRIc CoNDUIT Dam of SANDBAGS BUILT UP IN SUMMER ON A ‘PRIMITIVE WALL IN THE BED OF THE RIVER, 70 DIVERT THE WATER INTO THE Pagutstonic CANAL ‘Ar tue Fountain in THE TOWN SUPPLIED FROM ‘tae NeouiTate Conpurr EX-VoTO, REPRESENTING A PRIESTESS OF THE SUN-CULT ‘Tas Rowan Fountany at PaLos “Dizuviat.” Suei.is Frost rie Saxo DUNES BETWEEN ‘THE Rio TINTO AND THE ATLANTIC Pasuustonic Siac at Rio Tiros Pre-Roman SToNEWoRE at Rio Tito’ ONE OF OVER A THOUSAND PRE-ROMAN SHAFTS AT tmz Rio Tito Mins. ss A Roman Suaet at Rio Tixro B "7 10 26 6 6 2 e 2 4 54 6 68 68 & 8 be 2 oe 106 124 134 14 13418 List of Illustrations 38. Tae Doume oF Soro 29. MENHIR ON THE CLIFF BELOW Los Bensjats 30. ENTRANCE To THE CAVE ON THE BERMEJALES THROUGH WHICH ACCESS 18 GAINED TO THE FOOT OF THE MINING EXPLORATION : gi. Nsourmic Stones iv Tae Musevt ar Nuwta |) 32. A View oF Tas Cyccopean WALL at Niexa 33: Tue Cyctorsay Watt ar Lixus on Tue Riven Luces Frontispiece to Etbnolgica Section :— ‘Tae Sun Teurte ar SEVILLE 0 ‘Texan Lipvan. bo 5 MA The “Amazon Cor”. She. Vorwe Vases Lt SE Past oF rite Sox-Corn 58. The men nrwarsiwe Covcams Or Tis Tene oF Himevuss 1 Seite : 39 & go. Tue Mormn-cuures x Tatras |! t Starovrme of a Sux Pamesmss ss ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT ©. PLawor Nusta 21. Tae Gatcery Near Roxpa ” 22. Comparative Tasue oF ALpHanetic SiGxs 27, Doorway in Tat DOLMEN oF Et. RoseraL, Province OF Mazaca fo 4, Suuwo-Boury Foy WW Axpatucta 36. Neourrie Sux Syvmors ‘i 436A. Tae Ineeran SuN-CuLt 37. Tue Sun Tepis, Seve 38 PLan oF tHe Sun’ Teme, Sevitie | 42. Tae “Vinciy or THe OL Time” iw CarneppaL 5 oo 43. Lipran Wont | 44 Taste or Aveuaneric Fiourrs | 45. Companarive Tanue of FiGuRES From "Rock Painrinas 46. Avpuapetic Sioxs mv THE AuCazaR oF SEVILLE” 140 140 ug 48 1b 164 7" 13 186 386 230 240 240 32 137 175 204 zat 233 243 245 aa 283 284.PART I ARCHAOLOGICALCHAPTER I PALEOLITHIC REMAINS aT NIEBLA Nusa, the Tbetian Iipla, was throughout history the greatest fortress in the whole region extending from the river Guadiana (the Iberian Ana) to the Guadalquivir. Its walls with no less than forty watch-towers still stand practically complete on a plateau of Miocene limestone which, at its highest point, falls almost perpendicularly to the bank of the Rio Tinto, a hundred feet below. This is on the east of the ancient city, where the artificial harbour of port of the Desembarcadero lies between two plantations of poplars and eucalyptus. Looking upstream we see about ‘a quarter of a mile away the fine Roman bridge on the road from Seville to Huelva, the only one that crossed the tur- bulent mountain torrent previous to the construction of the railways to Seville and to the Rio Tinto mine some fifty years ago. The Desembarcadero pool is not less than a thousand feet long by an average hundred wide, and from ten to fifteen deep, and the impression created by the first view of this singular lake, artificially constructed in the elsewhere shallow bed of the blood-red stream, is never to be forgotten. Indeed, Professor Droop of Liverpool University, who worked some weeks with us here a few years ago, ssid he had seen no more beautiful excavation site in all his experience, unless perhaps it was Sparta. For eight months of the year peace and calm reign from end to end of the Desembareadero pool and its surroundings, save for the occasional passage of a motor-car or lorry across the bridge, driving the peasent with his donkey to22 Atlantis in Andalucia retire into the “refuge” projecting between two arches, as his forebears did in Roman times when the legions came in sight on their way from Hispalis or Ibylla to Tlipla, or to Onubs on the wide estuary formed by the junction of the rivers Tinto and Odiel where they debouch into the Atlantic, some thirty miles away. But in winter the scene sometimes changes almost in the twinkling of an eye. During the ‘equinox we may get a sudden storm, semi-tropical in its violence, and the Tinto, fed by a myriad streams from the precipitous cliffs along its upper reaches, becomes a roaring torrent raging round and over the rocks projecting from its bed above and below the Desembareadero pool, and even hurling itself over the top of the Roman bridge, which at such times becomes impassable. If a mere thunderstorm is in question the river goes down again very soon, but between January and April we sometimes, if seldom, have several weeks of rain at a stretch (though rare is the day that no gleam of sunshine breaks through the clouds) and then the Tinto rises higher and higher until the yellow flood spreads from bank to bank of the wide expanse of shallows below the south wall of the city, and the foot of the great staircase and lower wharf of the Desembarcadero are from three to six feet under water. At such times we understand very well why the people who engineered the staircase down to the wharf provided also a secondary approach to the tower giving access to the fortress on the river front, sufficiently high above the stream to be out of reach of the most overwhelming flood. ‘The question arises why a people capable of constructing such imperishable port-works as these should have chosen as the scene of their labours a peak above a river subject to floods so disastrous, when less than a mile away they could have established themselves on another limestone plateau hardly less precipitous in parts, with an inexhaustible stream of pure water at the foot which at no very remote