Gibraltar. — On the map in Figure 97, find, at the western end of the Mediterranean Sea, the narrow gateway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. At this place the sea is only nine miles wide. You can stand on the southern shore and see the land on the northern shore. Have you already guessed that this narrow place in the sea is another strait? It is called the Strait of Gibraltar because part of the word Gibraltar means "rock." From the picture in Figure 98 find why a word that means "rock" is a good name for this strait. This picture shows part of the northern shore of the strait. The Strait of Gibraltar, then, is the gateway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

Your journey from the Congo to the Mediterranean. — For most of your journey by boat between the mouth of the Congo and the Strait of Gibraltar, you are out of sight of land. Not many miles east of you, to your right, there is land, even though you do not see it. But on your left, the great Atlantic Ocean stretches on and on for hundreds of miles to the west. If your boat should come near the shore at any place during the first half of your journey, you would find that the land, the trees, and the people are much like those you saw along the Congo. Farther north, you would find a drier land, with fewer trees. Still farther north, for hundreds of miles, you would find a desert coast. The great desert you saw near the Nile reaches all the way from Egypt west to the Atlantic. Follow the route of this journey carefully on Figure 97.

As your boat draws near the coast to enter the Strait of Gibraltar, you can see land to your right, and in the distance you can see mountains. Then you can see land on the north, too, and you know that you are now coming into the strait. Some boats stop on the north side of the strait at the town you see at the toot of the great rock in Figure 98. Others stop on the south side at the place shown in Figure 99, but your boat is going on to the place you see in Figure 100. Find on the map the dot which stands for this city. It is east of the strait, on the southwestern shore of the Mediterranean. This coast is called the Barbary Coast, and the land along it often is called "a land of wonderful winters."

As you read the following paragraphs, find three things that help to make this land truly "a land of wonderful winters."

Winter sunshine. — On clear days in January, it is uncomfortably chffly here indoors if there is no fire, but out in the sunshine it is warm and pleasant. The air is fresh. There is no sign of snow except on the peaks of the distant mountains. The whitewashed houses look very white in the bright sunlight, and the shadows are very black. The minarets, the flat-topped houses, and the people and animals in the streets, are much like those of Cairo. Overhead, the sky is a briffiant blue.

Winter rain. — In the hot, dry summer this country looks like a desert, but the winters are not so dry as the summers. After the winter rains come, the land is green in many places. The grass is fresh, and the pastures are dotted with daisies and buttercups. At this time of year, the shepherds do not need to drive their flocks from place to place to find enough for them to eat. Although it is still winter, in some of the fields young wheat is already several inches high. The olive trees and orange trees always are green. The fig trees shed their leaves for the winter, but now they soon will put out new leaves.

Plants that are green in winter and can protect themselves. — Along the Barbary Coast, where the winters are cool but not cold, trees and other plants do not have to protect themselves from cold. Many of them stay green in the winter time. But they do have to protect themselves from the dry, hot summer weather. Some plants that live in Kanda’s country cannot live here without irrigation, because they cannot protect themselves against the dry summers. The roots of a plant take water from the soil, and the water travels up through the stems into the leaves. The plant uses part of this water in the leaves to make its food, but most of it evaporates from the leaves. If water evaporates from the leaves of a plant faster than the roots can take it from the soil, the plant wilts. In a hot, dry place, there is not much water in the ground for the roots to find, and water evaporates from the leaves very quickly. If you were to put a pint of water in a large shallow pan and another pint in a small cup and put them in the sun, all the water in the pan would evaporate before all the water in the cup would. In just the same way, water can evaporate faster frcm a large leaf than from a small one. The banana tree evaporates so much water from its large, thin leaves that its roots could not find enough water during the dry summers of the Barbary Coast, and so the banana tree does not grow well here.

The olive tree, however, can grow here because it has at least two ways of protecting itseli during the hot and dry summers. The tree you see in Figure 101 is very old. The leaves of the olive tree are small and thick. Water cannot evaporate from small, thick leaves as fast as from large, thin ones. Leaves have skin for protection, just as your bodies have. Olive leaves have thick skins. Water does not evaporate as rapidly through a thick skin as through a thin one. Orange trees and lemon trees also have small, thick leaves. These trees that can stand a hot, dry summer, and that stay green in the winter, help to make the region of the Barbary Coast "a land of wonderful winters."

Reading the map. —

1. The headings of the paragraphs you have just read tell you three things that help to make the land along the Barbary Coast "a land of wonderful winters." Were these the three things that you found? What things does the sign for the Barbary Coast, in Figure 97, now suggest to you?

2. Along the western and northern shores of the Mediterranean find three lands that are surrounded on all but one side by the sea. What do we call such lands? (P. 33., use your back button to return here)

3. In the peninsula farthest west, the Spanish and Portuguese people live. Their countries are called Spain and Portugal. Notice that the Atlantic Ocean is west of the peninsula, and that the Mediterranean Sea is east of it.

4. Find the first peninsula east of the Spanish peninsula. Here the Italians live. Their country is called Italy.

5. Find the southern part of the peninsula east of Italy. Here the Greek people live. Their country is called Greece.

6. Find the coast land between the Spanish peninsula and the Italian peninsula. This is part of France, the land in which the French people live. Other peoples, too, live along the Mediterranean, but the peoples that have been mentioned are those you will visit on this journey.

7. In which of these peninsulas is the northern shore of the Strait of Gibraltar?

Some things to find about the lands along the northern shore. — Suppose that your boat now goes back to the Strait of Gibraltar and starts to follow the western and northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, stopping here and there to let you make little visits in the lands near the coast. You have found that the Barbary Coast lands are like Egypt in some ways, but that more rain fails there than in Egypt, especially in the winter time. As you read about the lands along the northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, find whether these lands seem more like Egypt or more like the lands along the Barbary Coast.

As you read the text and study the pictures, make a list of five plants that help the people in these lands to get their living. Find all the ways you can in which these plants help.

Leandro’s home. — Leandro lives in Spain, near the Mediterranean coast, not very far from the Strait of Gibraltar. Leandro’s father says he has planted a fortune for him. By this he means that he has planted an orchard of olive trees that some day will belong to the boy. The trees were set out when Leandro was two years old, and by the time he was ten, they were bearing fruit. They are small trees yet, and Leandro knows that they may still be bearing olives when he is an old, old man. In a near-by orchard, there are some big, gnarled trees like those in Figure 102. His grandfather says that some of them are almost a hundred years old, and they still bear olives. If Leandro and his father prune their little trees and spray them, they will bear more olives than if they let them grow without care. In the bright sunshine, the trees in Leandro’s orchard seem almost to have leaves of silver, for the olive leaves are a grayish green.

Olives do not ripen till after the hot, dry, dusty summer. Some are picked in September, but most of them are gathered in late autumn or early winter. If the olives are to be pickled, they are gathered just before they are ripe. They should be picked by hand, for it bruises them if they are knocked or shaken off the trees. Leandro is now large enough to help pick the olives.

Olives which are used for oil are not picked till they are ripe. Leandro’s home is not far from a city and his father sells most of his ripe olives to the owner of a big oil press there, but he makes some oil himself. He puts ripe olives in a place hollowed out of a big stone, and on top of the olives he puts a heavy stone. One end of a pole is fastened to the top stone and at the other end he hitches a donkey. As Leandro drives the donkey round and round, the top stone turns and crushes the olives. The oil is then pressed from the crushed mass. Most people in Spain eat olive oil instead of butter. Some of their food is cooked in olive oil. Leandro is very fond of tortillas. A tortilla is a kind of omelet made of eggs mixed with meat, potatoes, and chopped peppers, and fried in olive oil.

Work in the olive orchards does not keep Leandro busy much of the time. Even the grown people in this part of Spain have many holidays, and take a good deal of time for play. They like music and fun, and they dress in colors as bright and gay as the colors of the fruit and flowers in this land. Sometimes Leandro and his sister Juanita, together with José, Francisca, and other boys and girls, go on picnics to the mountains that they can see from their village. Leandro and his sister stay indoors very little, for there are only three rooms in their cottage, and they are dark. It is much more pleasant to play in the garden where there are bright flowers, orange trees, and one tall date palm. Sometimes grandfather, who often sits on a bench in the garden, tells them stories and riddles. This is one of his riddles. The answer is something the children can see in the garden nearly every day in the year.

"There are bright long paths to Fairytown;
What shining paths do I mean?
They are not gray, nor black, nor brown,
Nor blue, nor white, nor green."

In September, Leandro and his father work in the vineyards which belong to some of their neighbors. These vineyards are on the slopes of the hills near their village. The vines can grow in this land of little rain because they have very long roots which go deep into the ground to get water. When the grapes are ripe, many helpers are needed and men, women, and children all work. They pick some of the grapes, but instead of gathering the others, they partly cut the stem of each bunch and leave the grapes hanging on the vines. In a few days, the hot sunshine dries them. These dried grapes are called raisins. When they are dry enough, the bunches of raisins are picked from the vines. Sometimes grapes are picked and put in trays to be dried. It is easy to dry fruit here, where it is so hot and sunny.

Other parts of Spain. — Along the Mediterranean coast north of the part of Spain where Leandro lives, many short streams flow to the sea from the mountains near the coast. As in Leandro’s country, some rain falls there, especially in winter. The people also put water from these streams on their land. Here there are many, many orange orchards near the coast. There also are lemon orchards much like the one in Figure 103. If you stopped in the right season at the chief city on this part of the coast, you would see many crates of oranges being loaded on ships to be carried to places where they do not grow.

You must not think, however, that all parts of Spain are like these parts you see along the Mediterranean coast. In the central part of the peninsula there are high, dry lands, with few trees and a thin grass cover here and there. In some places wheat can be grown, but many places are fit only for pasturing sheep and goats. In those parts, you find many shepherds and their flocks. On some of the mountains, there are forests. In some places, there are mines. The northwest coast is very different, too, from the parts of Spain you see along the Mediterranean.

Along the Mediterranean coast of France. — From the northern, Atlantic coast of Spain east to the Mediterranean, there is a range of high mountains, with many snow-capped peaks. If your boat goes near enough to the coast for you to see these mountains, you can tell about where Spain ends and France begins, for this range of mountains marks the boundary between these two countries. The part of France that is near the Mediterranean is very different from the other parts of France. In many places along the French Mediterranean coast, olive orchards and vineyards grow almost to the water’s edgeS.. As you go eastward along the coast, you pass the mouths of the great Rhone River. Between the mouths is a flat, low delta land. As in the case of the Nile delta, it has been built up by the mud, sand, and gravel that the river has dropped. In the delta land, too, there are many vineyards. A little east of the eastern mouth of the Rhone is a great city called Marseile.

A glimpse of a great Mediterranean city. — As your boat comes near Marseille, you can see the city spread along the coast, with high hills behind it. It looks white in the bright sunshine. As you come nearer, you can see piles of kegs and boxes on the wharves and men loading and unloading ships. Many of the kegs are filled v ith olive oil that is to be sent to lands where olives do not grow. Others contain wine made from the grapes that grow in the vineyards along the Mediterranean. In some of the boxes are dried fruits, and in others there is soap which was made in the soap factories of Marseile. The poorer kinds of olive oil are used in making this soap, and, as you go on along the coast, you will see where another thing used in making the soap is obtained. There are many other Mediterranean cities, but .none that handles so much oil as Marseille. It has been called the "City of Oils."

A winter playground. — In Figure 104 is a view you might see as you go on east along the shores of the Mediterranean. Find a place where the mountains come right to the water's edge. Can you see, too, that even the around on which the town is built is sloping? East of Marseffle, the mountains for many miles are close to the shore. In some places there is a little strip of land between the mountains and the sea. In other places, there is not even room for a road, and the roadway has to be cut like a shelf in the side of the mountains. Here and there down by the shore are orange groves and date-palm trees. In some places the steep slopes of the mountains have been cut into great steps or terraces. By this means the people can have little fields on the mountain side. In many of these fields they grow roses, sweet peas, violets, carnations, or other flowers. In some places, there are larger fields of flowers like those in Figure 105. Little boys and girls help their mothers pick these flowers to take to the factories where perfumes are made. Some of these perfumes are used in Marseille in making scented soap. In December, January, and February, these fields of flowers are so beautiful and the warm bright days are so pleasant that many people come from other parts of the world to spend their winter vacations in this lovely land. It is known as the Riviera. Many people in the towns along these coasts make their living by taking care of the winter visitors.

Pepino’s home. — Pepino is an Italian boy who lives in the city, part of which is shown in Figure 106. Find in Figure 97 a dot near the west coast of southern Italy. This dot stands for the city of Naples, in which Pepino lives. On your map, follow your journey from Marseille to Naples. After your boat passes the Riviera coast of France and Italy, it must sail southeast along the Italian coast for about three hundred miles before it brings you to this city of Naples. As you enter the Bay of Naples, the city lies a few miles ahead of you to your left. Here and there among the tree-covered hills around the bay are towns with white buildings. If the day is dear, as most days there are, the water of the bay is deep blue and the sails of the fishing boats glisten in the bright sunshine.

Ahead, to the east, you see the mountain shown in Figure 106. It is called Vesuvius. What can you see coming from the top of Vesuvius If, after you reached Naples, you made a trip to Vesuvius, you might see Pepino’s father, for he makes his living by helping to take visitors to and from the top of this steaming mountain. Many people come to Naples from other parts of the world to see Vesuvius and the beautiful bay.

Vesuvius is a volcano. So long as only steam is coming from the mountain, Vesuvius does little harm, but sometimes it does great damage. Pepino’s father has told him how, on a December day about three hundred years ago, a herdsman tending his sheep and goats high up on the mountain side heard crashes like thunder, while ashes and stones that were thrown out of the top of the mountain fell about him. He had to run to save his life. Peonle in Naples heard the crashes, too, and saw a great cloud blackened with dust rising from the mountain. Flashes of lightning played about its head. The earth shook so that the doors and windows rattled, and the walls of the hou3es swayed to and fro. A great stream of hot, liquid rock, or lava, poured out of the top of the mountain and flowed down the mountain side toward the sea. It split into seven streams that destroyed everything in their way. Vineyards, olive orchards, orange orchards, wheat fields, and towns were destroyed. Many people lost their lives.

Pepino’s grandmother can remember seeing an eruption that did great damage when she was about Pepino’s age, and he has heard stories of other eruptions that were not so harmful. He knows that he himself may sometime see one. He has seen men digging in the ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii. Hundreds of years ago this city was buried so deeply by ashes that came from the volcano that for centuries it was a lost city.

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