Jaen, like Huelva, at the opposite extremity of Andalusia, is a mining province, and like those of Huelva its mines are chiefly in the hands of Englishmen and of foreigners. Linares (36,000), north of the Guadalquiver, is the centre of the mining district, and is far the most populous town in the province. Nearly 11,000 men, women, and boys were employed in the lead-mines in 1877, and the ore raised amounted to 70,000 tons. It has been calculated that the production of the world is about 300,000 tons of lead, of which Spain furnishes 100,000 tons and the United Kingdom 100,000 tons. The capital, Jaen, south of the great river, has only 24,000 inhabitants; Ubeda and Baeza, close together, a little south of Jaen, have each 15,000. Andujar (11,000), with its old bridge over the Guadalquiver, is noted for its porous pottery, the cooling water-jars used throughout the whole of Southern Spain. In the north of this province is the celebrated Pass of Despeñaperros, through the Sierra Morena, one of the wildest gorges through which the traveller passes in any part of Europe; a few miles to the south of it is Las Navas de Tolosa, the field of the battle in 1212 which first proved how fast the power of the Moors was waning in Southern Spain.
Wentworth WEBSTER, Spain, 1882.
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