La Mancha 



185 



Never the glint of lake or lagooD, far less the joyous murmur of 

 rippling burn, rejoice eye or ear in La Mancha. 



Alas, that to us is denied the synthetic sense ! In vain we 

 scan Manchegan thicket for compensating beauties, for the 

 Naiads and Dryads with which Cervantes' creative spirit peopled 

 the wilderness ; no vision of lovely Dorotheas laving ivory limbs 

 of exquisite mould in sylvan fountain rewards our searching (but 

 too prosaic) gaze — that may perhaps be explained by the con- 

 temporary absence of any such fountains. Nor have other 

 lost or love-lorn maidens, Lucindas or Altisidoras from enchanted 

 castle, aided us to add one element of romance to purely faunal 

 studies. Castles, it is true, adorn the heights or crown a distant 

 skyline ; nor are Dulcineas 

 of Toboso extinct or even 

 infrequent. Of precisely 

 her type was our handmaiden 

 in the posada at Daimiel, 

 while excellent specimens 

 graced the twilight jjaseo of 

 Ciudad Real or reclined 

 beneath the orange -groves 

 of its alameda. 



We have animadverted 

 upon the absence of water in La Mancha. Yet there is no rule 

 but has its exception, and it is, in fact, to the existence of a 

 series of most singular Manchegan lagoons, abounding in bird- 

 life, that this venturesome literary excursion owes its genesis. 



In the midst of tawny table-lands, well-nigh 200 miles from 

 the sea and upwards of 2000 feet above its level, nestle the 

 sequestered Lagunas de Daimiel extending to many miles ot 

 mere and marsh-laud. These lakes are, in fact, the birthplace of 

 the great river Guadiana, the head-waters being formed by the 

 junction of its nascent streams with its lesser tributary the Ciguela. 

 In the confluence of the two rivers mentioned it is the 

 Guadiana that chiefly lends its serpentine course to the formation 

 of a vast series of lajroons, with islands and islets, cane-brakes 

 and shallows overgrown by reeds, sedge, and marsh - plants, 

 all traversed in every direction by open channels (called trochas), 

 the whole constituting a complication so extensive that none save 

 experienced boatmen can thread a way through its labyrinths. 



DESERT-LOVING WHEATEARS 



