SPAIN 



5473 



SPAIN 



The Country and Its Industries 



The Land. Spain is a country of contrasts, 

 not only between the old and new civiliza- 

 tions, but in its natural features as well. It is 

 a country of boundless plains and rugged sier- 

 ras, barren mountains and fertile valleys, track- 

 less and silent wastes and flourishing gardens 

 of the vine, olive and orange. In the north- 

 west provinces, bordering the Atlantic and the 

 Bay of Biscay, there are fertile meadows and 

 fields of flowers, such as those of England, and 

 dense forests of oak, beech and chestnut. In 

 the south there are rich sections of luxuriant 

 tropical vegetation, but barren steppes, studded 

 with a few fertile oases, border the southeast- 

 ern coast. 



Three-fourths of the peninsula is a treeless 

 table-land 1,000 to 3,000 feet above the sea, en- 

 closed by high mountains and broken by rough 

 sierras. This plateau is divided into two parts 

 by the Sierra de Guadarrama and Sierra de 

 Credos. The wooded Cantabrian Mountains 

 form a barrier on the north, and the Sierra 

 Morena range bounds the plateau on the south. 

 The mountains in Murcia and Aragon shut off 

 the Mediterranean on the east. 



On the north, Spain is separated from France 

 by the Pyrenees, the highest summit of which 

 is the Pico de Aneto (11,160 feet). Near the 

 southern coast rise the lofty Sierra Nevada 

 Mountains, whose culminating peak, Mulhacen 

 (11,664 feet), is the highest in Spain and one of 

 the loftiest in Europe. 



The Atlantic coast is steep and rocky, and 

 in its many fiordlike indentations are good har- 

 bors. The south and east coasts, however, are 

 comparatively regular, the gentle curves pro- 

 jecting in a few prominent headlands. From 

 the Portuguese boundary to the Strait of Gi- 

 braltar, the flat coast is broken by sand dunes 

 and wide marshes. The port of Cadiz is the 

 only important harbor on the southern coast. 

 At Gibraltar the coast rises to the precipitous 

 rocky cliffs which extend almost to Cape 1 de 

 Palos. Here the cliffs drop to flat beaches, 

 lifting again to the mountainous headlands at 

 Cape Nao. These alternating stretches of low 

 beaches and rocky cliffs follow the entire east- 

 ern coast. 



Rivers and Lakes. Four of the great rivers 

 of Spain rise in the central table-land and 

 empty into the Atlantic. The Tagus and the 

 Douro flow west through Portugal ; the Guadi- 

 ana follows a southerly course along the Portu- 

 guese boundary; the Guadalquivir flows south 

 343 



through the olive-clad region of Andalusia. The 

 Ebro rises in the Cantabrian Mountains and 

 flows east to the Mediterranean. It is the only 

 navigable stream on the Mediterranean side. 

 The Guadalquivir is the deepest stream of 

 Spain, and is navigable for large vessels to 

 Seville. 



There are numerous small mountain lakes, 

 and in the barren steppes are many salt ponds, 

 but the only bodies of water of any size are 

 three coast lagoons, the Albufera near Valencia, 

 the Mar Menor of Murcia, and the Laguna de 

 la Janda in Cadiz. 



Climate. Every climate of the temperate 

 zone is to be found in Spain. As great ex- 

 tremes of temperature as occur in any part of 

 Europe are experienced in the central table- 

 land. In this region the summers are very 

 warm and almost rainless, especially in the 

 Ebro valley, where the treeless sands, like a 

 concave mirror, reflect and intensify the heat 

 of the sun. However, nights are very cool, and 

 sudden changes of temperature are frequent in 

 all seasons. The winters are extremely cold, and 

 there is skating in Madrid during two months 

 of the year. 



In Andalusia, or South Spain, there is a sub- 

 tropical climate. During the mild winter vege- 

 tation is most luxuriant; the summers are very 

 warm. The dry steppes and plains of the south- 

 east coast are the warmest sections of the coun- 

 try and are frequently swept by the "solano," 

 a withering and scorching wind which some- 

 times blows for two successive weeks. The 

 northwest provinces on the Atlantic seaboard 

 have a climate as equable and moist as that 

 on the western coasts of England and Scotland, 

 and roses bloom in the gardens at Christmas 

 time. 



Agriculture. A large proportion of the in- 

 habitants are engaged in farming, but methods 

 of cultivation are generally crude. Although 

 eighty-eight per cent of the land of Spam is 

 productive, about one-half of the country re- 

 mains uncultivated. In an attempt to encour- 

 age this industry, agricultural commissioners 

 have been appointed in every province, and 

 many agricultural institutions, including the 

 royal school at Aranjuez, have been established. 

 The large estates, formerly rented to tenants 

 at high rates, are being divided and sold to the 

 farmers with small capital. 



Irrigation is necessary in the central and east- 

 ern districts and in parts of te northwestern 



