THROUGH WILD EUROPE 45 



In the extensive pine-forests which intersect and 

 surround the marismas there was an equal change. 

 The whole district had passed into different hands, 

 the Spanish Duke, the former owner, having sold it 

 to a capitalist. In the place of the solitude I had 

 found in 1897 there were now armies of men, with 

 scores of wagons and horses, engaged in felling the 

 largest of the trees and in conveying them to the 

 river, where a great steam saw-mill cut them up for 

 tramway sleepers before being shipped to their 

 destination ; and the peaceful stillness of the forest 

 was broken by the buzz and hum of machinery, the 

 sharp strokes of the axe, and the shouts of the 

 labourers. 



As we gazed around us at the havoc they had 

 made, our hopes for Eagles and Kites dwindled 

 away to zero. Every tree of any size had vanished ; 

 the charcoal-burners' fires were disposing of the 

 piles of branches, and even the very roots and 

 stumps, which were all that was left to remind me 

 of the monarchs of the forest of former years, were 

 being howked up and dragged out of the earth for 

 charcoal. 



It seemed quite ridiculous to expect an Eagle, 

 or even a Kite, to build on the puny little trees 

 which we saw. But to our surprise we found many 

 Kites and Black Kites nesting on the small pines, 

 and whenever we saw a silver poplar towering over 



