a city of Spain, which gives its name to the department on the south-west corner of the province of Catalonia. It stands on the bank of the river Ebro, about six leagues from its mouth. On that stream there is not any upward navigation, owing to the falls of water at Xerta, above the town. At Tortosa there is a passage across the river by a bridge of boats. It is strongly fortified, and is defended by Fort St Blas, in the suburb, and by a strong citadel on a rocky height near it. The buildings are in the antique style, and the streets very irregular. It is the seat of a bishop, and has a fine cathedral, and three parish and ten conventual churches, together with an ecclesiastical seminary. The inhabitants are about 16,700. The adjacent district yields abundance of the finest marbles and alabaster. One of the chief articles of its commerce is the liquorice, which grows abundantly, and almost spontaneously. It requires 400 pounds weight of the root to make fifty pounds of the juice for the shops. When attention is paid to the cultivation, the produce is very great; and the operation of digging it up prepares the ground for a crop of wheat better than the practice of following. There are in the city several distilleries of brandy, some manufactories of porcelain, and some of paper. There are also many persons occupied in the fisheries. Ships do not approach very near Tortosa, but discharge or take in their cargoes at the village Amposta, where there is a canal which communicates with Rapita and the port of Alfique, beyond the bar of the Ebro. There that river discharges itself into the sea by two mouths formed by the island of Buda, the eastern point of which is in long. 0. 55. E. and lat. 40. 43. 55. N.