LIFE IN THE SIERRAS. 



13 



Life in the Sierras. 



As the sinuous, ill-defined mule-track leaves the plain 

 and strikes the rising ground, the signs of man's presence 

 become rapidly scarcer ; for none, save the very poorest, 

 live outside the boundaries of town or village. For mile 

 after mile the track traverses the thickets of wild olive and 



& 





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A CHOZA: THE HOME OF THE AXDALUCIAX PEASANT. 



lentiscus ; here a whole hillside glows with the pink bloom 

 of rhododendron, or acres of asphodel clothe a barren 

 patch ; but not so much as a solitary choza, the rude reed- 

 built hut of a goatherd, can be seen. Now the path 

 merges in the bed of some winter torrent, rugged and 

 boulder-strewn, but shaded with bay and laurestinus, and 

 a fringe of magnificent oleanders ; anon we flounder 

 through deep deposits of alluvial mud bordered by waving 



