8 



WILD SPAIN. 



yards, orange and olive-groves, barren wastes and lonely 

 marismas, covers a stretch of three hundred miles from 

 east to west, and half that extent in depth ; and is bounded 

 — save on the Atlantic front^by an unbroken circle of 

 sierras. Commencing at Tarifa on the south, the moun- 

 tain-barrier is carried past Gibraltar and Malaga to the 

 Sierra Nevada, whose snow-clad summits reach 12,000 

 feet ; and beyond, on the east, by the Almerian spurs. 

 Nestling in the lap of this long southern range lies the 

 narrow belt of " Africa in Europe," above alluded to, 



FAIR SEVILLANAS. 



where, secured from northern winds and facing the blue 

 Mediterranean, grow even cotton and the sugar-cane ; while 

 the date-palm, algarroho or carob-tree, the banana, quince, 

 citron, lemon, and pomegranate, with other sub-tropical 

 plants, flourish in this Spanish Eiviera. Then, from the 

 easternmost point of the province, the Sagres Mountains 

 continue the rock-barrier to the point where the Sierra 

 Morena separates the sunny life of Andalucia from the 

 barrenness of La Mancha and primitive Estremadura. 

 These grim and almost unbroken solitudes of the Sierra 



