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Of the five great rivers of Spain only one, the Ebro, pours its waters into the Mediterranean; the other four, the Douro, Tagus, Guadiana, and Guadalquiver, discharge theirs into the Atlantic; but of these last the Guadalquiver alone is wholly a Spanish stream. In the lower and more valuable part of their course the Douro, Tagus, and Gaudiana, belong to Portugal—a fact which must always be remembered when treating of the internal commerce of Spain. But besides these larger streams there are several of slightly smaller dimensions, of which we will treat in order.

Few countries present within so short a distance so great a difference in rainfall and moisture as does Spain. In some parts of the Asturias and Galicia the rainfall is probably as heavy as that of any part of Europe—as much as 147½ inches are said to have been measured in a single year; and the average fall on the northern slopes of the Cantabrian mountains is said to be sixty inches annually. Yet the average of the whole basin of the Ebro—which rises from the southern slopes of the Picos de Europa, one of the most rainy of the rainy districts—is only eighteen inches annually, the last 300 miles of its course being through almost barren districts, where rain seldom falls.

The principal river of Galicia is the Minho, with its tributary the Sil. Each of these rises, though at some distance apart, from the southern side of the Cantabrian mountains, much nearer to the waters of the Bay of Biscay than to those of the Atlantic, into which they flow. They take thence a southerly and south-westerly course, until they unite a few miles above Orense. The lower part of the united course, which bears the name of the Minho, forms from Melgaco to the sea the frontier between the kingdoms of Portugal and Spain. The remaining rivers of Galicia are numerous but of little importance: the Tambre is the largest of those which fall into the Atlantic on the west; while on the north the sources of the Eo and the Navia overlap those of the Minho, and take their rise from the mountains which border on Leon. The whole country is exceedingly well watered. Both in its agricultural character as a grazing country, and in its flora and fauna, it resembles the milder portions of southern Ireland and of Devonshire, but with occasional products of a warmer zone. The rivers of the Asturias, Santander, and of the Basque provinces, all partake of the same general character. In the upper part of their courses they are mere mountain torrents, their course is rapid but short, and they are of but little use for navigation, though occasionally small but insecure harbours are formed at their mouth. The only great exception to this is the Nervion, on which Bilbao is situated, and which is navigable for eight miles from its mouth. The waters of the Bidassoa, the Deva, and others, are, however, utilized for the transport of ore from the mines and ironworks along the course. The Bidassoa, for some ten miles before it enters the Bay of Biscay at Cape Figueras forms the boundary between France and Spain; about four miles from its issue, between Irun and Behobie, is the celebrated Isle des Faisans, where, in 1659, the marriage was arranged between Louis XIV. and the Infanta, which eventually placed the Bourbons on the throne of Spain. The Bidassoa is the last of the northern rivers of Spain which falls into the Atlantic.

The Ebro has its rise from the source, Fontibre, in the province of Santander, and takes a south-easterly course of 466 miles, through the provinces of Santander, Burgos, Navarre, and Aragon, almost parallel with the Pyrenees, till it falls into the Mediterranean, through a sandy delta stretching some fifteen miles into the sea below Amposta. The descent for the first 200 miles of its course is exceedingly rapid, but after that the fall is gradual till it reaches the sea. In its course it receives the waters of many tributaries, both on the left from the Pyrenees, and on the right from the Idubeda mountains and the sierras of Southern Aragon. Were it not for these tributaries little of its waters would reach the Mediterranean, so dry and arid are the Bardenas of Navarre, and the Dehesas of Aragon, through which it flows. The Spaniards have a proverb that it is the Navarrese and Aragonese streams—the Arga, the Ega, and the Aragon—which make a man of the Ebro. Farther down, the Gallego runs in near Saragossa; while the united waters of the Cinca and the Segre at Mequinenza pour a far larger volume of water into the parent bed than it contains itself. From the right, the principal streams are the Xalon, with its tributary the Xiloca, which joins the Ebro between Tudela and Saragossa, the Marten, and the Guadalope near Caspe. The Ebro, notwithstanding its length, the number of its tributaries, and the extent of its basin, 25,000 square miles, is of little use for navigation. A magnificent canal—first projected and commenced by the Emperor Charles V. (I. of Spain) then after a lapse of more than two centuries taken in hand by Charles III., in 1770—runs from Tudela to Saragossa; thence to the sea it still remains in project only. The part already finished is falling into decay; and it is only the excellent quality of the masonry, and of the cement or mortar employed, that retards its utter ruin. The traffic is very small; and even as a means of irrigation its waters are allowed greatly to run to waste. At the apex of the delta from Amposta to San Carlos de la Rapita a canal of eight miles has been cut for purposes of navigation; but the formation of a bar, and the silting up of the bay, have rendered it almost useless. The other rivers which flow into the Mediterranean, between the lower course of the Ebro and the Pyrenees are the Fluvia, which flows into the gulf of Rosas, the Ter, which passes by Gerona, and the Llobregat near Barcelona. All are torrential streams, unfit for navigation; but their waters, if all utilized for irrigation like those of the Llobregat, would be sources of immense wealth to the country.

From the fact that the lower part of the course of the great rivers of the plateau—the Douro, the Tagus, and the Guadiana—flow through Portugal, their streams are hardly at all available as a means of communication or of navigation for Spain; and from the nature of the deeply cut beds which the waters have worn through the soil, flowing, especially as they approach the frontiers of Portugal, through gorges approaching in length and depth the cañons of North America, the rivers are little available for irrigation, although far more use might be made of them for this purpose than is actually done. Owing to the prejudices of the Spanish husbandman, and to his reluctance to accept any change, however profitable, in his ancient routine, neither the little that has been done in the present century, nor the remains of a wiser agriculture in former times are used by the peasantry. In the province of Zamora, for instance, both the ancient "acequias" and the modern canal of the Esla are equally neglected. The rich results that have followed the employment of the waters in the few cases in which they have been intelligently directed, stirs no one up to follow the example. It is one of the many contrasts between different parts of Spain, that the value of irrigation should be so well understood in some parts and so utterly neglected and under-valued in others. But we shall have more to say of this when we treat of the eastern and southern streams: at present let us return to the Douro, and to the other rivers of the plateau.

The Douro takes its rise in the Lago Negro, or Black Lake, on the southern flanks of the Mount Urbion, in the north-western angle of the province of Soria. It first runs eastward to the city of that name, the ancient Numantia, then turns almost directly south as far as Almazan, whence it runs westward to Portugal, receiving meanwhile the waters of the Esla, below Zamora; at the frontier, again it turns south, through deep gorges which form the boundary between Spain and Portugal, until it receives the waters of the Agueda, where it finally enters Portugal, and after a westerly course thence of about 100 miles, falls into the Atlantic below Oporto.

The basin drained by the Douro is the most extensive of all those of the rivers in Spain. Including the portion in Portugal, it comprises 35,000 square miles; the length of the river is about 500 miles; the average rainfall is stated at twenty inches. The chief affluents of the Douro descend from the north from the mountains of Burgos and the Cantabrian range. The largest are the Pisuerga, which rises not far from the sources of the Ebro among the Picos de Europa, and flows almost directly south by Palencia and Valladolid until it joins the Douro, some miles above Tordesilla; the Esla, which also rises from the western flanks of the same chain, not far from Covadonga, takes a somewhat more westerly direction, and after receiving several smaller streams unites with the Douro below Zamora. These two rivers supply water for two of the most successful canals in Spain, especially that along the Pisuerga, for over ninety miles from Alar del Rey to Valladolid. There is a considerable traffic on it, especially for passengers. It was planned in 1753 by Ensenada, but completed only in 1832. The canal of the Esla, for purposes of irrigation, begun by English engineers in 1864, and finished in 1869, has hardly been so successful. The latest report (June, 1880) states that the peasant proprietors, notwithstanding examples of the great utility of irrigation, obstinately refuse to use it. The principal affluents of the Douro on the west and south are the Tormes, which flows by Salamanca, and joins it about midway in its course as a frontier of Portugal; and the Agueda, which runs in just where it takes its final departure for the west.

The Tagus, the central river of Spain, and which divides its territory into two nearly equal portions, rises from a fountain called the Fuente Garcia, or Pié, on the south side of the Muela de San Juan, between the Sierras de Molina, Albaracin, and San Felipe, the knot of mountains which, as we have indicated above, form the great watershed of the peninsula, whence the waters flow northwards to the Ebro, east and southwards to the Mediterranean, and westwards, in the Tagus and its tributaries, to the Atlantic. Were the whole peninsula of Spain and Portugal one kingdom, the Tagus would be perhaps the most important of its rivers; but in the divided state it is of far more value to Portugal than to Spain. Its swift and turbid current, flowing between steep banks, and in a bed broken into rapids and encumbered by rocks, is scarcely navigable above Abrantes. The basin of the Tagus contains an area of nearly 30,000 square miles, and its length is estimated at about 550. The rainfall is less than that of the Douro, being only sixteen inches annually. The river, moreover, runs by no means in the centre of its basin, but far to the southwards of a central dividing line, and consequently the tributaries which it receives from the north or left bank are of much greater importance than those which come from the south or right. After flowing a few miles in a north-westerly direction, the river gradually bends, first westerly, and then in a slightly south-westerly direction, in a deep channel, through a bare rolling country, where everything takes the prevailing colour of red dusty uplands, until it arrives at Aranjuez, situated at the confluence of the Jarama and the Tagus, a royal residence whose abundance of water and of shade make it a true oasis in a desert. The Jarama, which rises in the Guadarama, brings in also the waters of the Henares, and those of the Manzanares, on which Madrid is situated. These streams have been the subjects of many projects and attempts at canalization, either for irrigation or for supplying the metropolis with water. Most of these have failed, but a canal from Porcal to Aranjuez, of seventeen miles and a half, is in working order. The canal of Cabarrus brings the waters of the Lozoya to Madrid. But the great enterprise of the canal of irrigation from the Henares, constructed by the same English company which made the canal of the Esla, and which was to have been twenty-eight miles in length, and to have irrigated 30,000 acres, is suspended by lawsuits as to the ownership of the waters. The Alberche, which rises to the north of the Sierra de Gredos, enters the Tagus near Talavera de la Reyna. The Tietjar, and the Alagon, which joins the main stream just above Alcantara, beside the frontier stream, the Heyas, are the only Spanish waters of importance from the north before the Tagus enters Portugal; and from the south the Salor and the del Monte, both of which have their rise and course in the same province of Caceres alone need mention. In the upper part of its course, however, the smaller tributaries of both the Tagus and the Guadiana often overlap, and but a very few miles separate the Tagus itself from the waters which flow into the Guadiana.

The exact source of the Guadiana has been a subject of much debate and of many fables. Its true origin seems to be in a series of lakes at the junction of the provinces of Ciudad Real and Albacete, near Montiel, in La Mancha. A picturesque stream, the Ruidosa, with many cascades and broken water, connects these lakes; but after running a few miles in a north-westerly direction, it disappears underground near Tomesillo, and is believed to rise to the surface after about twenty miles, in the Ojos (eyes) of the Guadiana, near Damiel. Very soon it receives from the right the united waters of the Zancara and the Giguela, streams whose contributions are much more scanty, especially in summer, than the length of their course on the map would lead one to suppose; thence the river flows in a westerly direction, passing near Ciudad Real, below which the Javalon enters from the left, coming from the Campo de Montiel; near Don Benito the Zuja, from the Sierra Morena, joins it, and some miles lower down the Matachet. Flowing past Medellin, five miles below Badajoz the river crosses the frontier of Portugal, changes its course from westerly to south-west, and afterwards south and south-east, till it again joins the frontier near San Lucar, and dividing the two countries till its mouth, falls into the Gulf of Cadiz at Ayamonte. In the lower part of its course the river, which before has been wide and shallow, and often almost dry in summer, narrows its course, and rushes with impetuosity through the rapids called the Salto del Lobo (the wolf's leap), near Serpa, in Portugal. The whole length of the Guadiana is estimated at 550 miles, and the area of its bed at 24,000 square miles. The rainfall is about fourteen inches.

To the south of the rivers of the plateau the only considerable stream is the Guadalquiver, with its tributaries. The character of this river is entirely different to that of the former streams. Like the Ebro, it forms a true valley, instead of merely cutting its way through rocks, cañons, and defiles. Its bed is on an average about 1200 feet below that of the Guadiana in the greater part of its course. It is also the only river in Spain of any utility for navigation; the tide is felt beyond Seville, and vessels of 200 to 300 tons ascend to that city. There are also several lines of steamboats trading thence directly with London, Marseilles, Bilbao, Cadiz, and Gibraltar. The Guadalquiver takes its rise from two sources—one, in the streams Guadalimar and Guadarmeno, rises in the Sierra Alcaraz, and not very far from the sources of the Guadiana; the other, which bears the name of the Guadalquiver, in the south-west of the Sierra Sagra; this latter branch is soon joined by the Guadiana Menor, coming down from the Sierra Nevada. The basin of the Guadalquiver presents this peculiarity, that its boundary is not formed by the line of the highest summits; on the contrary, many of its tributaries take their rise on the farther side of the Sierra Morena on the north, and of the Sierras de Granada and Nevada on the south, and have cut their way through these higher grounds to join the Guadalquiver in the plains of Andalusia. The upper part of its course is very rapid, and the junction of the two rivers Guadalimar and Guadalquiver, in the plains of Baeza, is about 5000 feet below the Punta de Almenara; but from thence to the sea the fall is very slight. After the junction the river passes by Andujar, Montoro, and Cordova, receiving on both banks the waters of many streams of but little importance; but between Cordova and Seville it is joined by its largest tributary, the Xenil, which rises in the Sierra Nevada, and flowing through the celebrated Vega of Granada, bursts through the Antequera mountains to enter the great plain of Andalusia, and loses itself in the Guadalquiver. From Seville downward the character of the stream is greatly changed; it wanders in large meanderings through low and marshy grounds for two or three leagues on each bank, mostly uninhabited, and used only for pasturing cattle. These low lands, which are called Marismas, in dry weather are covered with clouds of black dust, and in wet are an almost impassable slough of mud; mid these the river divides, and its winding beds form two islands—Isle Mayor and Menor, the former of which is wholly given to cattle, while the latter is inhabited and well cultivated; The river finally enters the Gulf of Cadiz, at San Lucar de Barameda, forcing its way with difficulty through low hills of sand, like those of the Landes in France. The marshes near the mouth are utilized as Salinas, for making excellent salt; and on the hills which overlook the Marismas some of the most renowned wines and fruits of Spain are produced. The whole course of the Guadalquiver is about 340 miles and the area of its basin 21,000: the rainfall is estimated at nineteen inches.

The other streams which fall into the Gulf of Cadiz—the Rio Tinto, which runs into the Huelva basin, and the Guadalete at Cadiz—are of no utility for navigation. The little port of Palos, whence Columbus sailed to discover a new world, is almost entirely blocked up by sands brought down by the former torrent.

The remaining rivers of Spain—those which, descending from the great plateau, flow eastward to the Mediterranean—though all useless for navigation, are among the most productive of all its streams. Flowing through a country whose temperature exceeds that of the opposite coast of Africa; where the rainfall is either scanty, or disastrous in quantity from rare but terrible storms; and through districts in which no rain falls for years together—the waters of these rivers, skilfully applied to irrigation, have rendered what would otherwise be a barren land one of fertility unparalleled in Europe. Unlike the peasants of Castile, the cultivators of Murcia and Valencia have learnt to value the use of water in agriculture; although even there, works which were first constructed by the Moors have been allowed to fall into ruin, and are yearly becoming of less utility. Of this we shall speak more at length below. The three great rivers we have yet to notice are the Murcian Segura, and the Jucar and Guadalaviar, in Valencia.

The river Segura takes its rise in the Sierra de Segura, between the Sierras of Alcaraz and Sagra. The upper part of its course is that of a mountain torrent, leaping from terrace to terrace of the mountains as it descends, until after the junction of the Mundo, which rises from a cirque in the Sierra Alcaras, like the cirque of Gavarnie in the Pyrenees, and flows through a deep ravine from the north-east. Its waters are dammed up, cut into numberless channels, and almost wholly utilized for irrigation, so that only about ten per cent of them reaches the sea; the rest are dissipated in the huertas of Murcia, Orihuela, and part of Elche. Its tributary the Sangonera loses almost all its waters in the plains of Lorca. With the little Vinalapo, almost 15,000 acres are rendered productive by the waters of these streams in one of the driest districts of Spain. The wheat of Orihuela is some of the finest in Spain; and so certain is the crop as to give rise to the proverb, "Rain or no rain, there is always wheat in Orihuela." The Segura has a course of about 217 miles, and an area of about 850 square miles; the average rainfall is estimated at about twelve inches, but the difference is very great in different years, as the district is liable to rare but most heavy and destructive floods.

The Jucar takes its rise not far from the sources of the Tagus, on the south side of the Muela de San Juan, which we have before mentioned as the culminating watershed of the peninsula. It flows first in a south-westerly direction as far as Cuenca, whence it gradually turns south and south-east, and at Jorquera, to the north-east of Albacete, strikes eastwards for the Mediterranean, which it finally enters at Cullera. Like the Segura and Guadalaviar, its waters are drained off for irrigation; but its basin is narrower, and it can boast of no fertility equal to the huertas of Murcia or Valencia. Its course is about 317 miles, the area of its bed 580, and the rainfall some twelve and a half inches; the irrigated land is over 30,000 acres.

The Guadalaviar, or Turia, rises on the north side of the Muela de San Juan, and descending rapidly, flows eastward past Albarracin and Teruel; at which latter town it turns abruptly southwards till it enters the province of Valencia, where it again takes a more easterly course, flowing with ever-diminished stream through the rich garden of Valencia, at which city it falls into the Mediterranean, with water which, except in time of flood, scarcely rises above the ankle. The length of its course is about 187 miles, the area of its basin 320 square miles; it irrigates over 25,000 acres near Valencia.

Besides these larger rivers, there are on the Mediterranean slope innumerable smaller streams, whose waters, though of little geographical importance, are of the greatest utility to agriculture. In summer scarcely a drop of their waters reaches the sea; all is either employed for irrigation, or dissipated by evaporation; often they are dammed up to form reservoirs or pantanos, sometimes employed for rice culture. But small as these streams are, it is to them that this burning coast owes its beauty and fertility, its almost tropical vegetation and its rich products. The fair gardens of Castellon, of Gandia, of Murviedro would be barren and valueless without these waters. Still farther to the north the waters of the Llobregat, and the canal of Urgel in Catalonia, are used for the same purpose.

The lakes of Spain are neither large nor numerous, but some are curious from a geographical point of view. On the high plateaux whence the Guadiana, the Guadalimar, the Segura, and the Jucar take their rise, either a dam or a trench would suffice to turn the waters either to the Atlantic or the Mediterranean; and here alone in Western Europe are found temporary lakes with no outlet, and consequently salt from excess of evaporation. For the same reason salt springs and brackish streams abound in these highlands. All around the coast, both on the Atlantic and Mediterranean, salinas, or salt-works for making salt, either from the sea or from the brackish water of lagoons and tidal marshes, abound; those of Cadiz, and of the coast between Cartagena and Alicante are celebrated for the excellence of their salt. Besides these are the five Albuferas, or lagoons, of Valencia, Alicante, Elche, Auna, and Oropesa. Of these that of Valencia is far the largest, and feeds enormous quantities of fish and of aquatic fowl of all kinds. The interior lakes, as that of Sanabria in Zamora, Gallocanta in Aragon, and those from which many of the rivers take their source, are noted only for their picturesque beauty. We can hardly show the value of water in Spain better than by directing the reader's attention to the number of places which take their name from water of some kind: thus there are forty-four villages or towns whose names are compounded of Aguas, waters; 238 into which the word Fuente, fountain, enters; 144 Rios, rivers; 54 Arroyos, brooks; 44 Pozos, wells; 30 Salinas, salt waters; 9 Rio Secos, dry rivers; and about 600 Molinos or water-mills. The multiplicity of these last dates perhaps from the time when every seigneur had his own mill, and obliged his vassals to grind their corn there; but assuredly in a moister climate water would not have played so great a part in the nomenclature, or toponymy, of the country.

We add the following table, deduced from Reclus' "Nouvelle Géographie Universelle," 6° Serie, p. 886, compared with an article in "La Revista Contemporanea," December 30th, 1880:—

The mineral springs of Spain are very numerous, as might be expected in a mountainous country, at the junction of different strata in the metamorphic fissures, and in the neighbourhood of extinct volcanoes. Many of them were known and used by the Romans, and possibly by other races before their time. The Moors made use of many, more especially in the south. The majority of these springs are much neglected, and the bathing establishments in their roughness are a striking contrast to those of Germany and of France; there is, however, no reason to suppose that the waters themselves are less efficacious. The best known springs lie along the line of the Pyrenees, in Catalonia, Navarre, and especially in the Basque provinces and Santander. Another noted group are in the neighbourhood of Granada, and on the northern slopes of the Sierra Nevada. Those in the Guadarrama range are more frequented, from their vicinity to Madrid. Many of the Salados and Salinas in the higher parts of the eastern range, as well as the springs in the neighbourhood of Valencia, might be utilized with advantage. In this, as in many other things, Spain has not yet recovered the threads of a lost civilization, and in many points of material comfort and well-being is behind the Spain of Roman and of Moorish times.