LIFE IN THE SIERRAS. 15 



the sign of a wasteful process that is ruthlessly destroymg 

 the silent beauties of the sierra. Every tree, shrub, or 

 bush has to go to provide fuel for the universal piieliero. 

 No other firing is used for kitchen purposes ; no houses, 

 save a few of the richest, have fireplaces or cooking- 

 apparatus other than the charcoal anafy — with its triple 

 blow-holes, through which the smouldering embers are 

 fanned with a grass-woven mat {nee cut at p. 22) — and its 

 accompaniments, the casKcIa and cla}^ <>Ua. The mountain 

 forest is his only resource : yet the careless Andaluz never 

 dreams of the future, or of planting trees to replace those 

 he burns to-day. 



Hence year by year the land becomes ever more treeless, 

 barren, and naked ; whole hill-ranges which only twenty 

 years ago were densely clad with thickets of varied growth, 

 the lair of boar and roe, are now denuded and disfigured. 

 The blackened circle, the site of a charcoal-furnace, attests 

 the destructive handiwork of man. If one expostulates 

 with the carhoneros, or laments the destruction wrought, 

 their reply is always the same: — "The land will now 

 become ticrra de payt,'' or corn-land, of which there is 

 already more than enough for the labour availaljle. 



In some upland valley one comes across a colony of 

 carhoneros who have settled down on some clearing under 

 agreement with the owner to cut and prepare for market. 

 These woodmen are either paid so much per quintal, or 

 obtain the use of the land in return for clearing and 

 reducing it into order for corn-growing. No rent is 

 asked for the first five years, or if any be paid, a portion 

 of the crop is usually the landlord's share. During the 

 first few years, these disafforested lands are highly pro- 

 ductive, the virgin soil, enriched by carbonized refuse, 

 yielding as much as sixty bushels to the acre. The 

 carhoneros lead a lonely life, except when their sequestered 

 colony is enlivened by the arrival of the arrieros with 

 their donkey-teams, to load up the produce for the nearest 

 towns. 



Fortunately for the Spanish forests, there are two 

 circumstances that tend to limit their destruction. First 



