A BOAE-HrNT IN THE SIERRA. '27 



power of ice in actual operation, and carving out those 

 grim Arctic hills after a precisely similar pattern. Here, 

 however, dense jungle had for ages replaced the snow, and 

 the wild boar now occupied strongholds where, pos^ihUj, the 

 reindeer had once ranged in search of scanty lichen. For 

 the season (March) the greenness of all foliage was remark- 

 able ; the oaks alone remained naked, and even from their 

 leafless boughs hung luxuriant festoons of ivy and parasitic 

 plants. 



The upper end of our valley was shut in hy the tower- 

 ing, transverse mass of the Sierra de las Cabras, which 

 terminates hard by, in a fine abrupt gorge or chasm called 

 the Boca de la Foz. It was to the deep-jungled corries 

 which furrow the sides of this chasm that Alonzo had that 

 morning traced to their vamas some six or eight pig, 

 including a couple of boar of the largest size, and this was 

 to be the scene of our first day's operations. 



A pitiable episode occurred while we were surveying our 

 surroundings, and preparing for a start. From close 

 behind, suddenly resounded a peal of strange inhuman 

 laughter, followed by incoherent words ; and through the 

 iron bars of a narrow window we discerned the emaciated 

 figure of a man, wild and unkempt of aspect, and whose 

 eagle-like claws grasped the barriers of his cell — a poor 

 lunatic. No connected replies could we get — nothing but 

 vacuous laughter and gibbering chatter : now he was at 

 the theatre and quoted magic jargon ; now supplicating 

 the mercy of a judge ; then singing a stanza of some old 

 song, to break off as suddenly into a fierce denunciation of 

 one of IIS as the cause of all his trou})les. Poor wretch ! 

 He had once been a successful lawyer and advocate, but 

 having developed signs of madness, which increased with 



years, the once popular Carlos B was now reduced to the 



wretched durance of this iron-girt cell ; his only share and 

 view of God's earth just so much of sombre everlasthig 

 sierra as the narrow opening permitted. We were told it 

 was hopeless to make any effort to ameliorate his lot — his 

 case was too desperate. What hidden wrongs and outrage 

 exist in a land where no judicial intervention is permitted 



