BASQUE PROVINCES (Spanish Pro vincias Vascongadas), in northeastern Spain, the three provinces of Alava, Viscaya (Biscay) and Guipftzcoa. These will be found under their separate headings. The total area is 2,739 square miles, and the total population was estimated (31 Dec. 1914) at 706,249. Lying on the northern versant of the Cantabrian Moun tains, these provinces present a reasonable con trast to the arid table-land of Castile, being covered with green all the year round. Bears, chamois, capercailzie and hazel-grouse abound in the waving forests of oak, birch, ash and beech trees; there are great chestnut and wal nut groves, bountiful orchards, vineyards and luxuriant meadows alternating with fields of maize, rye, potatoes, flax and hemp. Salmon and trout streams race through the verdant mountain glens; from Corunna to the Bidassoa, on the French frontier, the country is dotted with isolated farmsteads, villages consisting of little else besides a church and a tavern, the rest of the houses scattered over a wide area.
Though tolerably straight and uniform, the north coast is broken by several small harbors, where much commerce is carried on in small vessels. The Basque provinces are the centre of the iron mining district of Spain, where the most active extraction of this metal is in prog ress, nearly 6,000,000 tons being produced annually. In the province of Guiptizcoa is the village of Loyola, the birthplace (1491) of Inigo Lopez de Recalde, who became famous as the founder of the Jesuit order under the name of Ignatius of Loyola. In that village, also, the Basques have their sacred tree called the °Guarnica,0 the emblem of their liberties. See BASQUES.