Thus Spain has a more varied vegetation than any other country of Europe, for its high plains and mountainous valleys are almost Alpine in the character of their flora; its North Atlantic region has ferns and grassy meadows, forests of oak, beech, and chestnut; and the southeast and south a flora that is almost African, and comprising many species that are purely tropical.
So we find that Spain, though only six hundred and fifty miles in greatest length, and with an area of but little more than one hundred and ninety thousand square miles, can boast forests of olives and cork oaks, hillsides covered with vineyards, valleys filled with orange trees, almonds, pomegranates, sugar cane, and with a range of fruits extending from the apple of the northern region to the date palm of the south, which last was brought over from Africa. Honeybees lay up rich stores from the thyme–covered tablelands, silkworms flourish in the mulberry groves of the eastern provinces, and the cochineal feeds on the cactus of the south.
Not only does the land yield every variety of food for the sustenance of man, but, with its thirteen hundred miles of coast line, Spain has boundless stores of fish, such as anchovies, tunnies, and salmon in their season. And again, while almost every species of the animal as well as the vegetable kingdom might find a congenial home here, Nature has not been sparing of her minerals, such as copper, lead, silver, gold, coal, iron, cobalt, and quicksilver.
These are some of the natural resources of Spain, showing, as has been said already, that it was bountifully endowed by the Creator with all things necessary to man’s subsistence, even though he might through ignorance prodigally waste them.
We have no authentic history of the first peoples inhabiting Iberia, but it is believed that a remnant of their descendants yet exists in northern Spain, in the Basques, whose speech and customs differ from those of all others on the face of the earth. The Basques claim that they are descended from the original people, and say, moreover, that their language was the veritable speech of Paradise. It is difficult enough to acquire, at all events, and they have a tradition that the “Evil One” himself once spent seven years in attempting to master it, and then gave up in despair, after having acquired but two words, “yes” and “no,” which he forgot as soon as he left the country!