148 Unexplored Spain 



a central northern projection which would embrace all the 

 Midland Counties as far as Nottingham ! 



[In any survey of the Sierra Morena, it is appropriate to 

 include the adjoining Montes de Toledo. They, as just stated, 

 form a north-trending pyramidal apex based on the main chain 

 and presenting identical characteristics, both physical and faunal, 

 thoufjh of lower o-eneral elevation. The Montes de Toledo, in 

 short, are an intricate complication of low subrounded hills — 

 rather than mountains — tacked on to the north of Morena, all 

 scrub-clad and inhabited by the same wild beasts. Toledan stags 

 exhibit the same magnificent cornual development, and there is 

 evidence of seasonal intermigration as between two adjacent 

 regions only divided by the valley of the Guadiana — a shortage 

 in- one area being sometimes found to be compensated by a 

 corresponding increase in the other. Roe-deer are more abundant 

 in the lower range ; but the sole clean-cut faunal distinction lies 

 in the presence of ^vild fallow-deer in the Montes de Toledo — 

 these animals being quite unknown in Morena.^] 



May we digress on a cognate subject ? The Sierra Nevada, 

 though so near (at one point the two ranges are merely separated 

 by a narrow gap yclept Los Llanos de Jaen), yet presents totally 

 divergent natural phenomena. 



There are points in Morena — say from the heights above 

 Despefiaperros — whence the two systems can be surveyed at 

 once. Behind you, on the north, roll away, ridge beyond ridge, 

 the endless rounded skylines of Morena — colossal yet never 

 abrupt. In front, to the south — apparently within stone's- 

 throw — rise the stupendous snow-peaks of Nevada — ^jagged 

 pinnacles piercing the heavens to nigh 12,000 feet. 



These peaks may appear within stone's-throw, or say an easy 

 day's ride, though that is an optical illusion. But narrow as it 

 is, that gap of Jaen divides two mountain-regions utterly dis- 

 similar in every attribute, whether as to the manner of their birth 

 in remote ages and the landscapes they present to-day. 



Faunal distinctions are also conspicuous. In Nevada there 

 are found neither deer of any kind (whether red, roe, or fallow) 



1 The Moutes de Toledo comiirise some of the best big-gaiue country in Spain and include 

 several of her most famous preserves ; such, for example, as the Goto de Cabaneros belonging 

 to the Conde de Valdelagrana, El Castillo, a domain of the Duke of Castillejos, and Zumajo 

 of the Marques de Alventos. The Duke of Arion possesses a wild tract inhabited by 

 fallow-deer. 



