IRUN  , a frontier

town of northern Spain, in the province of Guipflzcoa, on the left bank of the river Bidassoa, opposite the French village of Hendaye . Pop . (rgoo) 9012, Iron is the northern terminus of the Spanish Northern railway, and a " The forests alone cannot fully regulate and conserve the waters of the arid regions . Great storage works are necessary to equalize the flow of the streams and to save the flood waters . Their construction has been conclusively shown to be an undertaking too vast for private effort . Nor can it he best accomplished by the individual states acting alone . " Far-reaching interstate problems are involved, and the re-sources of single states would often be inadequate . It is properly a national function, at least in some of its features .. It is as right for the National Government to make the streams and rivers of the arid regions useful by engineering works for water storage, as to make useful the rivers and harbours of the humid regions by engineering works of another kind . The storing of the floods in reservoirs at the headquarters of our rivers is but an enlargement of our present policy thriving industrial town, with ironworks, tan-yards, potteries and paper mills . Its principal buildings are the fine Renaissance parish church and the fortress-like 17th-century town hall . It derives its prosperity from the fact that it is the most important custom-house in Spain for the overland trade with the rest of Europe .

Irun is also on the

chief highway for travellers and mails . It is the terminus of some important narrow-gauge mining railways and steam tramways, which place it in communication with the mining districts of Guipffzcoa and Navarre, and with the valuable oak, pine and beech forests of both provinces . There are hot mineral springs in the town .