The high continental mass which forms the greater part of the kingdom of Spain has few navigable rivers and a coastline that is for the most part steep and rocky and with relatively few indenta tions that are easily approached from the interior. The north coast has numerous indentations that form convenient harbours for small craft although the current that flows eastward along this coast frequently builds bars at their mouths. The best harbours are to be found in the rias or fiord-like indentations of the coast of Galicia. Here are the fine natural harbours of Pontevedra, Vigo, Corunna, and Ferrol.
The Portuguese seaboard is Soo m. long and, as compared with the rest of the peninsula, relatively low. On the southern half of the coast, however, mountain masses and spurs terminate in a number of high rocky headlands like Capes Mondego, Carvoeiro, da Roca, Espichel, de Sines, and St. Vincent. The lagoon of Aveiro and the estuaries of the Minho, Douro, Mondego, Tagus. Sado, and Guadiana rivers deeply indent the coast and furnish the principal harbours.
Along the Gulf of Cadiz is the broadest coastal plain of the whole peninsula. Eastward as far as the marshes at the mouth of the Guadalquivir (Las Marismas) it is lined by a series of sand dunes and bordered in part by a line of low, wave-built islands. Eastward from the mouth of the Guadalquivir the coast is more varied and includes the excellent harbour of the Bay of Cadiz.
The Mediterranean coast is bold and rocky from the Strait of Gibraltar almost to Cape Palos hut is broken by the British owned harbour of Gibraltar and the fine harbour of Cartagena. North of Cape Palos the coastal ranges again recede leaving a narrow coastal plain ; but, in the northern part of the province of Alicante the mountains again advance to the sea and form the lofty headland of Cape de la Nao. The whole coast of the Bay of Valencia is low and swampy and lined with lagoons, fur nishing little in the way of good harbours. All this coast is built of sediments brought down from the Meseta. This sedimentary character culminates in the great delta of the Ebro river. North of the mouth of the Ebro the coast alternates between playas and rocky headlands. The Llobregat river also forms a considerable delta just south of the harbour of Barcelona. From Barcelona a long monotonous sand-beach extends to the mouth of the Tordera river. Here begins the famous "costa brava" divided into two sections by the Gulf of Rosas and presenting a rough varied coast line of deep coves and steep, rocky bluffs.
The surface of the Iberian peninsula is noted for its striking contrasts and its vast expanses of dreary uniformity. There are mountains rising with Alpine grandeur above the snow line, but often sheltering rich and beautiful valleys at their base. Naked walls of white limestone tower above dark woods of cork and olive. In other parts, as in the Basque country, in Galicia, in
the Serrania de Cuenca (between the headwaters of the Tagus and those of the Jacar), in the Sierra de Albarracin (between the headwaters of the Tagus and those of the Guadalquivir), there are extensive tracts of undulating forest-clad hill country. Almost contiguous to these there are broad plains of level table land, some almost uninhabitable and some with a network of irrigation canals and richly cultivated like the Requena of Valencia. Continuous mountain ranges and broad tablelands give the prevailing character to the scenery; but there are, in addition, lofty isolated mountain peaks such as Monseny, Mont serrat, and Mont Sant in Catalonia, the Pefia Golosa in Valencia, and Moncayo on the border of Aragon and Old Castile, as well as many small secluded valleys such as those of Vich and Olot among the Catalonian Pyrenees.
The Meseta.—More than half the Iberian peninsula is occu pied by the Meseta, an ancient earth-block consisting for the most part of flat-lying strata, broken and eroded and reduced in large part to a state of peneplanation. The Meseta slopes gradually from north to south and from west to east, its average altitude being about 2,000 ft. On the north it is bordered by the Can tabrian mountains and on the north-east by the Iberian ranges which separate the Meseta from the deep tectonic depression in which flows the Ebro river and terminate near the Gulf of Valencia. On the south the Meseta is bordered by the Sierra Morena, which is actually only the steep southern edge of the Meseta along the Baetic depression, and the Sierra de Alcaraz between the headwaters of the Guadalquivir and Segura rivers. The Cantabrian mountains are divided into two sections—the Cantabro-Asturian section on the northern border of the Meseta and the Galician section which extends into Portugal as far as the Douro river. The Cantabro-Asturian section runs sensibly parallel to the north coast and culminates in the Pefia de Cerredo (8,794 ft.), the highest point in the ranges of the Meseta. A characteristic of these mountains is the many parameras or iso lated plateaux surrounded by steep mountains or walls of sheer cliffs. On account of the diversity of their origin and their many interruptions the Iberian ranges can better be characterized as the upturned north-east corner of the Meseta rather than a true mountain system. It reaches its highest point in the Sierra de Moncayo (7,593 ft.). South of the Jalon river it divides into two sections. One which borders on the Meseta forms the broken and picturesque Serrania de Cuenca. The other which lies nearer the Ebro depression forms the coast ranges that border the low, lagoon-strewn Bay of Valencia.