1 92 1.] Birdi; of Alcndia, Majorca. 673 



a rule, with a thick iindergrovvth of juniper, myrtle, rose- 

 mary, heather, etc., in places densely bound together with a 

 tangle of Smilax aspersa — a tough, thorny creeper, as 

 difficult to get through as barbed wire. Behind the sand- 

 dunes, nearest Puerta Alcudia and to the west of it, is an 

 extent of marshland, covered with spear-grass, samphire, and 

 coarse herbage, among wliich are several shallow lagoons. 

 Behind this marshland, and farther west, arc low hills with 

 woods of splendid pine-trees among them — the outlying spurs 

 of the high mountainous country in the north. Beyond 

 the sweep of the bay is the Albufera — a large tract of 

 swamp, entirely under water, covered with a dense growth 

 of reeds and intersected with numerous canals and streams, 

 which all run into the sea through a large canal nearly in 

 the centre of the bay. An attempt was made many years 

 ago to drain this Albufera, in order to grow rice and cotton, 

 and most elaborate roads, dykes, and pumping-stations were 

 constructed ; but the work was relinquished, and most of 

 the dykes and buildings are now neglected and in ruins. 

 A small quantity of rice, however, is still grown in the 

 fringes of the marsh, and a prosperous paper-mill flourishes 

 in the centre, where paper is made from the reeds growing 

 in the marsh. Beyond the Albufera, sand-dunes, pine- 

 woods, and heath-land extend inland as far as Santa 

 Margaritii, among which are some fine torrentes ; then comes 

 the bare, rocky, scrub-covered country at the foot of the 

 mountains round Arta to Cabo Farruch. 



East of Alcudia is the peninsula between the bays of 

 Pollensa and Alcudia— a tract of wild mountainous country, 

 rising to a height of 1500 feet at the Atalaya de Alcudia, 

 with beautiful pine-woods and gorges, bold crags and 

 precipices, and some fine coast scenery, culminating in the 

 Cabo del Pinar — a low pine-covered cape — and the ])are, 

 forbiddino; clifts of the Cabo de Menorca. 



At the western end of the Bay of Pollensa is a smaller 

 marsh, called the Albuferete, v>^hich takes all the streams 

 flowing: eastwards from the mountains behind Pollensa. 

 The peninsula on the northern shore of Pollensa Bay is a 



