BISCAY. Part of the Spanish monarchy, inclu ding three cantons, Alaba or Alava, Guipuzcoa, and Biscay Proper, constitute a province called the Lordship of Biscay. This province is bounded by the Bay 'of Biscay, and the Gulf of Gascony, on the north; on the east, by Navarre ; on the south, by Old Castile ; and on the west, by the same kingdom and the Asturias. The country consists entirely of hills and mountains, many of which are piled on each other to a great height : the ascent of the mountain Gorveya occupies five hours ; but on the summit is a beautiful plain, whither the herds of Biscay Proper and Alava arc sent to pas ture during several months of the year : some of the hills are cultivated to the top ; and the vallies dividing them being devoted to agriculture also, and the pasture of flocks, the inhabitants suffer few of the inconveniences attached to a mountainous country.
Different species of iron ore are found in the mountains of Biscay ; the richest is near Hernani in Guipuzcoa ; in the vicinity of Bilboa the chief town, where the ore reaches the surface of the earth, and at Somorrostro likewise in Biscay Proper.• The last consists of a regular undulated hill, which may be encompassed in walking during four or five hours ; and here the ore forms an uninterrupted stratum from three to ten feet in thickness, covered with a bed of whitish calcareous rock from two to six feet thick. When first taken from the mine, the ore is of the co lour of bull's blood, and exhibits a purple tinge on be ing wet. It is reputed the softest and most fusible iron. ore of all Europe, and is said to be frequently mixed with what yields a harder metal in smelting, by those who carry it to a distance from the mine. To re duce the ore to a malleable state, it is first roasted by alternate strata of wood and ore piled together being set on tire ; next it is put into a furnace, and after having been in a state of fusion, it is placed on an anvil, under an immense hammer of 700 or 1000 pounds weight, by which the mass is squared and re duced to bars. Thus the ore is said to be fused a few hours, the bars formed, and sold to blacksmiths.
A (pintal of ore will afford thirty-five pounds of good iron. The mine of SomOrrostro has been work ed during many centuries ; and the workmen em ployed in it, from frequently finding broken pieces of implements that had been used to dig it out in an cient times, maintain that the ore is renewed. Be sides the mine of Somorrostro, there is a great ferru ginous rock, about half a mile from Bilboa, which is of a different nature. An engineer engaged in some public works near this rock, found a vein of ore eighty feet from the surface, consisting of an in finite variety of ramifications, some an inch in diame ter, and others as thick as the arm. Hxmatites or blood-stones, are often found in the mines of Biscay, which yield twice or thrice as. much iron in propor tion as comes from the ore of Somorrostro, but hard and brittle. Alvmt a league from the town of Mon dragon, in Guipuzcoa, is the iron mine of Mondra gon, the ore of which affords about forty per cent. of metal. It is of difficult fusion, and is said to con tain natural steel. Tradition affirms, that the famous Toledo sword-blades were made of the iron of Mon dragon, and that they were tempered only during winter. Others insist that they were fabricated of the pure steel found there, to which some iron was added in the middle of the blade, to render it more flexible : It is likewise reported, that the name Pedro de Lagaretea c)f Bilboa proves that a blade is ge nuine. Copper and marble are found in Biscay. A salt spring near the village of Aguana produces a great quantity of salt, which is extracted by boiling and evaporation : and there are various mineral wa ters, both hot and cold, in all the three cantons ; though their constituent principles, from never ha ving been analysed, are unknown. Near the village of Llodio, between Bilboa and Orduna, is a well, ap parently communicating with the sea, which is seven leagues distant. When the tide flows, the water in the well rises, and as it ebbs, it falls. Besides this periodical rise, the well becomes still fuller, and even overflows in a storm, when it crosses a neighbouring road, and is hot and soapy.