SAMPHIRE 



90 Unexplored Spain 



above mentioned, has a curious effect when eaten by mares (which 



is often the case when other food is scarce) of inducing a form of 

 intoxication from which many die. Indeed, the 

 deaths from Ensapinadas represent a serious loss 

 to horse-breeders whose mares are sent to graze in 

 the marismas. Cattle are not affected. 



Formerly the Sapina possessed a commercial 

 value, being used (owing to its alkaline qualities) in 

 the manufacture of soap. Nowadays it is replaced 

 by other chemicals. 



Here and there, owing to some imperceptible 

 gradient, the marisma is traversed by broad channels 

 called canos, where, by reason of the water having 

 a definite flow, the soil has become less saline. The 

 armajo at such spots becomes scarce or disappears 

 altogether, its place being taken by quite diflerent 



plants, namely : Spear-grass [Cyperus], Candilejo, Bayunco, 



the Encrlish names of which we do not know. 



Efforts have been made from time to time to reclaim and 



utilise portions of the marisma by draining the water to the 



river ; but failure has invariably resulted for the following 



reasons : 



(1) The intense saltness of the soil. 



(2) That the marisma lies largely on a lower level than the 

 river banks. 



(3) The river being tidal, its water is salt or brackish. 

 There are vast areas of far better land in Spain which might 



be reclaimed with certainty and at infinitely less cost. 



The only human inhabitants of the marisma are a few herds- 

 men whose reed-built huts are scattered on remote vetas. There 

 are also the professional wildfowlers with their cabf^esto-iponies, ; 

 but this class is disappearing as, bit by bit, the system of 

 "preservation" extends over the wastes. Though the climate 

 is healthy enough except for a period just preceding the autumn 

 rains, yet our keepers and most of those who live here per- 

 manently are terrible sufferers from malaria. Quinine, they tell 

 us, costs as much as bread in the family economy. 



We quote the following impression from Wild Spain, p. 78 : — 



The utter loneliness and desolation of the middle marismas cull forth 

 sensations one does not forget. Hour after hour one pushes forward 



