EVILS FOLLOWING DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS. 59 



the garden of the Lord " are applicable, they are so to 

 this splendid plain. The diligent hands of the Arabs had 

 divided the rivers Sangonera and Segura into thousands 

 of streamlets, and led them throughout the whole valley ; 

 and wherever under the burning sun of Spain there is an 

 abundance of water we have almost tropical vegetation 

 and incredible fertility. In my host's garden I saw stalks 

 of the sunflower which in two or three months had grown 

 to a height of from 15 to 20 feet, and which, being as 

 thick as a man's arm, served as supports to the vine. 

 Engrafted shoots reach in the course of a year a height 

 scarcely attained in the north of Europe in three or four 

 years. The whole plain is divided like a garden in plots, 

 which for the most part are devoted to the cultivation of 

 garden plants, the principal article of commerce and 

 source of wealth to the inhabitants. At the same time 

 olive, orange, lemon, and pomegranate trees are not 

 wanting. The laurel rises to the height of a tree, and 

 towering above all are seen the beautiful crowns of 

 the elegant palm trees, That one fearful October night 

 seemed to be destined to destroy all this beauty, and in 

 many a spot it in reality turned this Paradise into a 

 desert, covering the most fruitful parts, for years to come, 

 with sand. 



' This time it was rather the Sangonera than the Segura 

 which caused the disaster. It is said to have received its 

 name from Sangre negra (black blood), at the time when 

 the Arabs in a bloody and decisive battle destroyed the 

 hosts of Murcia, and the river, swollen with black blood, 

 washed the bodies of the slain away to the sea. Water- 

 spouts and violent showers between two mountain chains 

 had, within the space of a few hours, turned the plain 

 into a sea, which, with a hoarse rushing like that of dis- 

 tant thunder, dashed down into the valley. It was the 

 night of the 14th October a night which will not easily 

 be forgotten by the inhabitants of the plain. Flight was 

 impossible ; but a few houses, amongst the thousands with 

 which the plain was studded, resisted the force of the 



