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Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 2, 28 September 1937, Page 9

Badajoz province, where the Spanish loyalists are attacking vigorously, is a frontier province of Western Spain. It has an area of 8451 square miles, a population of about 700,000, and is separated from Portugal by the Guadiana River, by which river it is mainly watered. The climate varies between extremes of heat and cold. The rainfall is scanty. The province suffers through this lack of water, and the lack of means of communication. The Madrid-Lisbon railway passes through the province. Agriculture is neglected, but live stock—acorn-fed swine, sheep, and goats—is reared. Lead and copper are found in small quantities. Badajoz, the capital, has a population of about 40,000. The Firth of Clyde, an important commercial highway, extends from Dumbarton to Ailsa Craig, a distance of 65 miles. It varies in width from one mile at Dumbarton to 37 miles at the entrance, and has a greatest depth of GOO feet. Among its principal ports, in addition to Dumbarton, are Port Glasgow, Greenock, Androssan, Irvine, and Ayr. Firth is the name given to the narrow inlets or arms of the sea found on the coasts of Scotland. Most of them are estuaries or gulfs into which rivers discharge themselves. Firths are as a rule valleys which have been flooded by the sea owing to the subsidence of the land.