CINTRA. 53 



and g*ardens, and woods stretching along the hills on both 

 hands ; to the north the flat, interminable, treeless plain, 

 glowing in the sun, and abounding in cornfields and vine- 

 yards, with oNlafra four leagues away, showing its vast pile 

 of buildings like a second Escorial, colossal in size, even 

 from here ; to the south the hills of Alemtejo, stretching far 

 away into the clear distance, and, perhaps, as some report, 

 in the extreme horizon, even the mountains of the little 

 southern province of Algarve; to the west the broad Atlantic, 

 of whose waters I had never seen at one glance half such 

 an expanse before; to the east the Tagus, winding up towards 

 the capital, and extending into a broad bay above it, though 

 Lisbon itself was hidden from view by the lower hills which 

 intervene. There was always a fresh breeze blowing on the 

 top of these elevated ridges, and there was always an un- 

 clouded sky and the very brightest of suns, and it was diffi- 

 cult to decide which of the many peaks was the highest, for 

 each in turn, as seen from some fresh point of view, seemed 

 to claim the right of precedence. However, leaving others 

 to settle that knotty point, we may affirm of all of them, 

 that they boasted the same glorious prospect, that they 

 were all equally rugged and barren, and that here silence 

 and solitude reigned supreme, broken only by the occasional 

 tinkle of a sheep-bell, or the shrill reed-pipe of a goat- 

 herd, for in these upland rocks the Arcadian herdsmen thus 

 beguiled the monotony of their lives. Nor was animal 

 life much more abundant than the vegetation: for of the 

 mammalia I saw not a single specimen ; of birds, a colony 

 of choughs and an occasional raven monopolised the upper 

 rocks, while larks and pipits contented themselves with a 

 lower elevation. But the reptile world was better repre- 

 sented; for brown and grreen lizards basked on the £jlowini>- 

 rocks, and darted in and out amidst the huge boulders, and 

 on one occasion I succeeded in shooting a flne specimen of 

 the beautiful ' eyed ' or ' great spotted ' green lizard (Za- 



