70 



WILD SPAIN. 



CHAPTER VI. 

 THE B.ETICAN WILDERNESS. 



SPEING-NOTES OF BIRD-LIFE, NATUKAL HISTORY, AND 

 EXPLORATION IN THE MARISMA. 



Part I. — April, 



\ 1 



Andalucia may roughly 

 be subdivided into four 

 main regions, unequal in 

 extent, but of well-marked 

 physical characters and 

 conformation. These are 

 the sierras, and the rolling 

 corn-lands, at both of which 

 we have already glanced. 

 Then there are the dchesas 

 — wild, uncultivated wastes 

 or prairies, of which more 

 anon. Lastly, there are 

 the maris mas. 



We have in English no 

 equivalent to the Spanish 

 "marisma," and these regions are so peculiar, both phy- 

 sically and ornithologically, as to require a short descrip- 

 tion. Geologicahy, the marismas are the deltas of great 

 rivers, the alluvial accumulations of ages, deposited, layer 

 upon layer, on the sea-bottom till the myriad particles 

 thrust back the sea, and form level plains of dry land. 

 The struggle l)etween rival elements does not terminate, 

 but the attacks of the liquid comlmtant only seem to result 

 in still further assuring the victory of tn-ra tiniia, by bank- 



