HUELVA, a maritime province of south-western Spain, formed in 1833 of districts taken from Andalusia, and bounded on the north by Badajoz, east by Seville, south by the Gulf of Cadiz and west by Portugal. Pop. estimated (1930) area 3,913 sq.m. The northern district is highland traversed in a south-westerly direction by the Sierra Morena, here known, in its main ridge, as the Sierra de Aracena. The south is a low land maritime strip with flat waste lands (Las Marismas) in the south-east around the mouth of the Guadalquivir. The lower reaches of the Guadalquivir and Guadiana are navigable and form respectively for some distance the south-eastern and south-west ern boundaries. The Odiel and the Tinto both fall into the Atlantic by navigable rias or estuaries. Huelva has a mild and equable climate, with abundant moisture and a fertile soil. In the northern highlands there are many oaks, pines, beeches, cork trees and chestnut, while the lowlands afford excellent pasturage. But agriculture and stock-breeding are here less important than in most Spanish provinces, although the exports comprise large quantities of fruit, oil and wine, besides cork and esparto grass. The headquarters of the fishing trades, which include the drying and salting of fish, are at Huelva, the capital, and Ayamonte on the Guadiana. There are numerous brandy distilleries, but the great local industry is the mining of copper manganese and iron. The well known Rio Tinto copper mines, near the sources of the Tinto, like those of Tharsis, 3o m. N.N.W. of Huelva, were ex ploited from very early times and later by the Carthaginians, and Romans. Saline and other mineral springs are common through out the province. Huelva is the principal seaport, with railway connections with Seville and Merida, while a network of narrow gauge railways gives access to the chief mining centres. See also