350 Spain. 



the ruler of the world. Once, under the beneficent 

 dominion of the Saracens, a paradise where, as a 

 Roman author puts it, "Nil otiosum, nihil sterile 

 in Hispania," it has become almost a desert through 

 neglect, indolence, ignorance, false pride, lack of com- 

 munal spirit, despotism of church, and misrule by a 

 corrupt bureaucracy. 



With the exception of a narrow belt along the sea- 

 shore, the whole of the Iberian peninsula is a vast high 

 mesa, plateau or tableland, 1,500 to 3,000 feet above 

 sea level, traversed by lofty mountain chains, or 

 sierras, five or six in number, running parallel to each 

 other, mainly in a westerly and southwesterly direc- 

 tion. These divide the plateau into as many plains, 

 treeless, and for the most part, arid, exposed to cold 

 blasts in winter, and burning up in summer. They 

 are frequently subjected to severe droughts, which 

 sometimes have lasted for months, bringing desolation 

 to country and people. The rivers, as they usually 

 do in such countries similar to our arid plains, form 

 canons and arroyos, and, being uncertain in their 

 water stages, none of them are navigable although 

 hundreds of miles long, but useful for irrigation, on 

 which agriculture relies. The great mineral wealth 

 had made Spain the California of the Carthaginians 

 and Romans, and it is still its most valuable resource. 



Dicionaro Hispano- Americano, 1893, contains an article (montes) on the ad- 

 ministrative practice of the forest laws. 



A Year in Spain, by a young- American (Slidell) 1829, gives an excellent 

 account of physical conditions of the country and character of the people at that 

 time. 



Das Moderne Geistesleben in Spanien, 1883, and Kulturgeschichtliche und 

 Wirtschaftspolitische Betrachtungen, 1901, by GuSTAV DlERKS, details character 

 of institutions and people. 



