SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 471 



the winter, however, tlioy arc covered with verdure. About the first of 

 May the slieep start for tiie mountains.* Formerly many of them rested 

 on the lofty paramcras and mountain sides of Old and New Castile — ihe 

 latter bleak, sterile and cragu:y, compared with the sides of our own South- 

 ern mountains. IJut a friend recently from Spain informs me that those 

 once mao^niticent flocks (now, alas ! thinned by confiscation, t the whole- 

 sale plunder of invaders,| and for the subsistence of adverse armies, ||) do not 

 at present stop in any considerable numbers on the Castilian mountains, 

 but pass north to the Cantabrian, and that portion of the Iberiiin rano-o 

 north of Soria — or crossing the latter, spread over the Easteni Pyrenees, 

 and the mountains of Saragossa north of the Ebro. 



Anything like an elaborate comparison between the facilities for sheep 

 husbandry furnished by the mountains of Spain and the Apalachians of 

 the United States, south of the Potomac, would, perhaps, be out of place 

 in this connection. ]>ut a glance at them may thiow useful light on the 

 question of comparative ])rofit. If the Spaniard can grow wool at a profit, 

 where the natural and physical features of the country gives him no ad- 

 vantage over us, we can certainly do so ; for in every other respect we 

 have the advantage. 



The Eastern Pyrenees rise to a hight of 10,000 fect,§ more than double 

 that of the Peaks of Otter, or that of any other portion of the Apalachian 

 range, with the exception of a few summits in North Carolina. Mount 

 Perdu, one of the Pyrenees, is 11,283 feet in hight, ^ or 4,807 feet higher 

 than the Black, the highest mountain of the United States east of the Mis- 

 sissippi. Maladetta, Vignemale and others rise considerably above 10,000 

 feet.** Glaciers exist on different parts of the whole chain. " The acclivity 

 of the Pyrenees on the side of Spain, is often extremely steep,tt present 

 ing a succession of rugged chasms, abrupt precipices, and huge ma.sse3 of 

 naked rock."|J Minano, a Spanish writer of authority, in defending his 

 countiymen from the charge of indolence, speaks particularly of the ef 

 forts of the hardy peasantry on the " almost inaccessible mountains of the 

 Asturias, Galicia and Catalonia." The vegetation on these mountains is ex- 

 tremely vai-iable, in some places being as luxuriant as the best on our South- 

 ern Apalachians, but more frequently dwarfish and meager. On large 

 portions of them it is entirely wanting. The northern acclivities are fre- 

 quently swept by cold and piercing gales from the Ray of Biscay. On the 

 whole, it will be seen that they do not compare with our southern moun- 

 tains in the advantages which they offer for sheep husbandry.] | || 



* For sinerulnr and intprostiiii; particulars in relation to their march, &c., and the municipal reg;ulat;on3 

 pertaining thereto, see Livingston on Sheep, p. 36 et supra. 



t Some of the choicest tlocks in Spain were confiscated hy the Government durinc; the crent antifiallic 

 strugsle. In the winter of lS(i!t, the Spanish Junto confi.ocated the great flocks of the infamously celebrated 

 Godoy and several other nobles, and they were bought by foreigners for exportation. 



J The French Marshals, not finding nnythins in Spain to benefit the Jitie oris o[ tabelle France, as in Italy, 

 condescended, it is said, to benefit her Agriculture, by driving home some of the best flocks of Spain. The 

 Allied Armies compelled the restitution of the marble and canvas, but those priceless f oaks either could not 

 be re-collected, or they were not regarded as of sufficient importance to be returned. 



II The Commissariat of the English, French and Spanish armies, 



"The foe, the victim, and the fond ally," 



found the great Spanish flocks a very convenient resort, and availed themsclvea of it fully. The Cuerilla«, 

 contrabandists, and fugitive inhabitants, of course, did the same. 



§ Malte Brun. H lb. ** Kncyclopaidia Americana; ail. Pyrenees. 



ft Montserrat (in Catalonia), so famous for its monastic establishments, will occur to you in this cnnaoc- 

 tion — where the steepness is so great that the monks ascend from hermiince to hermitage by ladders or 

 stairs rut in the rocks ! }{ Kncyclotiaidia Americana ; an. Pyreitas. 



II II How much the associntions of early life — early rvading — dispose us to exaggerate even the physical 

 extent of the reunon covered by these mountains, connected as they are with so many romantic and inter- 

 esting remembrances I The whole chain, extending from Cape Finisterre to Port Vendres. does not exceed 

 SIJO miles in length ; and the space covered by it is not, in VVestei-n parlance, a " circumstance '" to that oc- 

 cupied by our .■^oulhera Apalachians ! Yet. in the western half of this chain. I'elayo and bis successors 

 maintuned their VisiGothic kingdom, overthrew the descendants of the Abassidcs and Onimiades, and 

 finally wrested Spain from the Moorish yoke. Who remembers, without the map under his eye, that Ba» 

 (951) 



