T RAV

118 TRAVELS IN EUROPE.concatenated with othel' misdl1efs in its progœss, that nothing butanatural or political convulsion could eradicate it.And its operationsat second hand go consirlerably in aid of the other political evils ofthis iII-fated country.Pons, and more especially Bowles, are communicativeon this subject, so far as their vièws of it reach; a point considerably,howevel', short of its extent or range, of which they were bynomeans duly apprised.Epidemy and emigl'ation could not have donewhat we see, had not the very constitution of the 8tate,. th€;~lay.q'l'azgosystem, the jus majoratus, lent ils p.owerful aid. Thisis the true nurse,if the expression be allowable, ofdepopulation.Although Spain neverrecovered the effects of the plague of the fourteenth century, yet inMohammedan countries, otherwise politically constituted, this scourgeis hardly to he traced after the short lapse of thirty years.Before thesuhject of the merinos is dismissed, of which travellers to the latest dayhave yet left a considerable quantity of matter behind them, let somenotice be taken of the appetite of this animal for salt. Nature tnusthave a meaning in it. lt is much diminished when the Bock arrivesfrom an argillaceous upon a calcareous soil, which of course contains,quoad them, a substitute for the mineraI, and is congenial to theconstitutionof the sheep.On the former it becomes ravenous for this substance.Theil' allowance is increased or diminished accordingly. Pigeons,it is well known, possess a similar propensityfor both substances.Where they cannot get salt they pick lime.This is matterhumbly sub-',mitted to the consideration of those liable to heavy losses in theirflocks by the rot; an evil not known in Ireland,where the soil 1s chieflycalcareous.'fhe merinos are considercd to bepartof:the staple wealthof Spain, and undouhtedly are far more effieient,in>their returns thanher ~olonies. 'fhey constitnte, too, the greatest private revenues. Yetit is by no means cIeal', on calculation, aprocessfarmers of the superior