lo March, 1909.] IrngatKni i)i l-'.astcni Spam. 



About a dozen miles more and one arrives at Valencia del Cid, to 

 give it its full title. The approach to the town is heralded by the 

 numerous characteristic cottages or rather cabins of the farmers ^ known 

 as Barracas which are quite different from what is to be seen in any 

 other part of Spain. The two photographs reproduced will give an 



A "barraca" (peasant's cottage). 



idea of these queer high gabled, whitewashed huts with their scanty 

 windows and thatched roofs, a relic of the Moors who have left abun- 

 dant traces of their occupation in this portion of Spain. 



Valencia is a handsome town of 220,000 inhabitants; it is, in fact, 

 the third town in Spain and possesses many historical monuments, most 

 of which are distinctly Moorish. One of the most interesting of these, 

 from an agricultural point of view, is the Lonja de la Seda or silk ex- 

 change, which, with its spiral columns and high vaulted ceiling of hard 

 marble like limestone, remains to-dav almost exactlv as it was at the 



barracas near VALENCIA. 



time of the Moorish occupation. Silk production and manufacture are 

 important industries in Valencia at the present day ; last year's prices 

 were verv satisfactory to producers. 



