Unexplored Spain 



amidst a universal khaki, yet this is, in truth, a kingdom of the 

 sun. The f^reat bustard maintains a foothold on these arid 

 uplands, but the fauna is best exemphfied by the desert-loving 

 sand-grouse {Ptcrocles arenarius). 



Precisely the reverse of all this is Cantabria — the Basque 

 provinces of the north, with Galicia and the Asturias. There, 

 bordering on the Biscayan Sea, you find a region absolutely 

 Scandinavian in type — pinnacled peaks, precipitous beyond all 

 rivals even in Spain, with deep-rifted valleys between, rushing 

 salmon-rivers and mountain-torrents abounding in trout. Here 

 the fauna is alpine, if not subarctic, and includes the brown 

 bear and chamois, the ptarmigan, hazel-grouse, and capercaillie. 



Cantabria is a region of rock, snow, and mist-wraith ; of birch 

 and pine-forest — the very antithesis of the third region, that next 

 concerns us, the smiling plains of Andalucia and Valencia nestling 

 on Mediterranean shore. Here for eight months out of the 

 twelve one lives in a paradise ; but the summer is African in its 

 burden of heat and discomfort. Every green thing outside the 

 vineyard and irrigated garden is burnt up by a fiery sun, a sun 

 that changes not, but, day following day, grips the land in a 

 blisterino- embrace. Climatic conditions such as these reacting on 

 a race already infused with Arab blood naturally conduce to 

 Oriental modes of life. Yet even here we have examples of the 

 curious contradictions that characterise this pays de Vimprevu. 

 Thus within sight of one another, there flourish on the vega 

 below the date-palm and sugar-cane, while the ice-defying edel- 

 weiss embellishes the snows above — arctic and tropic in one. 



Such extremes of climate react, as suggested, upon the 

 character of the human inhabitants of a land which includes 

 within its boundaries nearly all the physical conditions of Europe 

 and North Africa. From the north, as might be expected, comes 

 the worker — the sturdy laborious Galician, disdained and despised 

 by his Andalucian brother, regarded as lacking in dignity — the 

 very name Gallego is a term of reproach. But he is. a happy 

 and contented hewer of wood and drawer of water, that Gallego : 

 throughout Spain he carries the baskets, bears the burdens, cleans 

 the floors ; and finally returns, a rich man, to his barren hills of 

 Galicia. 



The Andalucian will condescend to tend your cattle or garden, 



