Among the domestic animals the sheep and horses are distinguished. The cheep are noted for their fine wool, which forma an important article of export. They peas the summer on the Sierras de Guadar rams, Avila, and Gate, and the winter In the low mountains of Estremadum which lie between the Tagus and Guadiana. Their number amounts to five or six millions Sheep are also numerous in other parts, but they have generally a coarse wool. The horses of Spain, and especially those of Andalucia, are noted for their beauty; but during the French occupation (1808-1814), nearly all the fine breeds were sent to France, and they are now comparatively scarce. Cattle are only numerous and of large size near the higher mountain ranges; in other parte they are small, with the exception of those fed in the salt-marshes of Sevilla The asses and mules are dis tinguished by their size and beauty. Piga are not very numerous. Goats are more numerous than in any country of Europe, especially on the table-land. There are a few mountain-goats on the Pyrenees. The mountains also contain wolves and other wild animals. The carp of the silkworm, the cochineal insect, and bees, are branches of industry. In no country of Europe, except Italy, is so much silk obtained u in the eastern and southern provinces of Spain. The cochineal insect hats been reared for the last forty years in Andalucia, Granada, and Estremadura. Beea are very abundant, and much honey and wax are obtained.
Spain abounds in minerals, but, with the exception of the silver and lead-mines of Murcia and Andalucia, the quicksilver-mine of Almaden, and the iron-mines of Asturias, they are very imperfectly wrought.
Inhabilants.—The inhabitants of the Peninsula appear in the earliest historical times to have been Iberians, who were perhaps an aboriginal people, mingled with a considerable number of Celts, who had crossed the Pyrenees, and had partly overpowered the Iberians. The two races seem to have afterwards coalesced, and to have formed the nation of Celt-Iberians, but pure Iberian and pure Celtic tribes still remained in various parts of the Peninsula. During the whole period of ancient history the great bulk of the population remained unchanged, and all the subsequent infusions of Roman, Gothic, and Moorish blood have in no degree obliterated and but slightly altered the leading characteristics of the Iberian and Celtiberian races. Arnold, quoting Strabo (iii. p. 145), remarks, that "the grave dress, the temperance and sobriety, the unyielding spirit, the extreme indolence, the perse verance in guerilla warfare, and the remarkable absence of the highest military qualities, ascribed by the Greek and Roman writers to the ancient Iberians, are all more or less characteristio of the Spaniards of modern times. The courtesy and gallantry of the Spaniard to women has also come down to him from his Iberian ancestors."
(‘ Hist. of Rome,' iii. 396.) So also have the habits of brigandage, and the dislike and disunion which still subsist not only between the natives of Spain end Portugal, but between the inhabitants of several of the different provinces of Spain itself.
Commerce and Manufactures.—Spain, from the extent of its coast line, its large ports of Cadiz, Cartagena, and Ferrol, the number of its smaller harbours, its geographical position, and its abundance of natural productions, possesses very great commercial advantages, but those advantages have been diminished, and in a great measure destroyed, by the restrictive laws of the government. Smuggling to an enormous extent is carried on almost everywhere along the coast, especially at and near Gibraltar, and also from France across the Pyrenees, and from Portugal across the frontier. The articles smuggled through Gibraltar consist of cottons, linens, muslin; thread, stockings, and the like, and tobacco to a large amount.
The total imports into Spain during the year 1849 amounted to 587,171,795 reels (about 6,160,0001.). Of course these are the regis tered imports. The amount of goods smuggled into the country cannot be estimated. The exports during the same year amounted to 478,102,822 reals (about 5,000,0001.). The imports consist of colonial produce, dried fish and salted provisions, cotton and woollen goods, cutlery, glass, butter, and cheese. The exports consist of wool, wine, brandy, oil, fruits, chestnuts and nuts, cork, quicksilver, iron, silver, load, and salt, with a small quantity of silk and manufactured geode. Of late years a large amount of wheat and flour has been exported from the northern provinces, chiefly to Cuba and Brazil.
The manufacturing industry, formerly considerable, has greatly declined. The government has still manufactures of tobacco, salt petre, gunpowder, cannon, fire-arms, and porcelain, but they are all in a decayed state except the manufactory of cigars at Sevilla. Other manufactures are silks, coarse cottons and woollens, and leather. Cutlery and iron-ware are made to some amount in tho Banque Provinces and Asturias.
Roads, Canals, and Railways—Tho publio roads in Spain, except those around the capital and the royal read from Madrid through Leon to Oviedo and the coast, are amongst the worst iu Europe. The only canal of importance is the Imperial Canal, commenced by Charles V., extending along the southern bank of the Ebro. (ARAOON.] There are three or four small canals iu the Castillas and in Murcia. The railways at present completed are—from Barcelona to Itataro, 171 miler, opened in 1843; from Valencia to Alcira, 22.1 miles; from Valencia to Grao, 3 miles; from Madrid to Aranjuez; from Aranjuez to Altnansa ; from Alcazar to Pemblique.