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THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.

distributed in bands of tens of thousands under shepherds and dogs running through millions of acres that are abandoned to their use. It is also a fact that Spain contains the one specimen of the Barbary ape still found wild in Europe, and the four hundred species of butterflies found in the province of Madrid alone are like the gayety and grace displayed in the Spanish ballroom. Spain has ever been a camping ground for innumerable tribes of feathered songsters. The peninsula lies directly in their route to and from frigid and temperate Europe to tropical Africa. While some adorn the foliage with their brilliant plumage, others delight the ear with enchanting melodies.

Spain leads all other European countries in the variety and amount of its minerals. In the production of silver, copper, mercury and lead even Austria and Hungary are excelled. The Greek and Latin authors who have described the Spanish peninsula, state the quantity of gold and silver found there was very great, and that hence the district became an important center of commercial activity of the Phcenicians and Carthaginians.

Marble of many colors and great beauty, iron, silver, copper, loadstone, gold, pearls and rubies make of Spain, what it always has been, an inexhaustible storehouse of wealth.

As the brilliant panorama of nature’s wonders recedes from view we find ourselves in royal Madrid amid towering domes and stately palaces. The Castilian capitol is truly an eden of architectural beauty and splendor, and forms the center of an art cir­cle unsurpassed in any other land. The royal palace is acknowledged to be the finest structure of art in all Europe. It is a hollow square, four hundred and seventy feet on the outside and one hundred and forty feet within. A colonnade and a gallery runs entirely around the inside of the square, and without are windows, cornices and col­umns, adorned with heavy ornaments, except in the balustrade which crowns the whole and hides the leaden roof from view. It is constructed of a kind of granite which has the appearance of white marble; the only wood used in it is the frame of the roof, doors and windows. The foundation stands entirely upon a system of subterranean arches. A magnificent staircase of marble, on which the architect, sculptor and painter have exhausted their arts, leads to the second floor, which is likewise supported by arches.

Here is a second colonnade and a gallery which looks upon the court and is paved with marble. This gallery opens upon the apartments of the diffent members of the royal family, the chapel and audience chamber. On the ceilings are the work of such men as Mengs, Bayeux, Velasquez and Graedona, while the walls are adorned with the best productions of Rubens, Titian, Murillo, Velasquez and Spagnoletto. The picture gallery is a marvel of art, and contains the paintings of both ancient and modern mas­ters, Claude, Van Dyke, Guido, Murillo, Poussin Raphael, Rubens, Teniers Titian, Tintoretto, Velasquez, Paul Veronese and Wonvermans. It is only here that one can study our Velasquez to advantage.

The small oratory of the king is the most beautiful apartment of the palace. It is adorned with the richest and most finely variegated marbles found in the peninsula. The furniture, tapestry, mirrors and clocks are of the highest style of magnificence. The garden of the retiro is of great extent, with its Chinese temple, fountains, artificial lake, gilded barge and royal menagerie. The most prominent object is the bronze statue of Philip IV. Though the figures are four times as large as life, and the enor­mous mass weighing nine tons is supported on the horse’s two hind legs, yet there is such harmony in all the parts as to prevent its appearing cumbrous or unwieldly.

The Fountain of the Swan is another fine piece nestled among the spreading trees. The center is formed of cherubs riding on the back of a snow-white swan and holding in their hands a torch, through which the water flows. In the garden of the Casino stands the bronze statute of Phillip III., weighing twelve thousand pounds.

The Museum of Statuary and Painting is a wonder of elegance and ability in art and design, a monument of Spain’s days of prosperity, the beginning of its construc­tion dating back to the time of Charles III. Here all the different schools of art are represented, and, notwithstanding the wholesale plunder made upon it by other nations, it still remains the finest of its kind in the world.