CHAPTER XXXII 

 VALENCIA 



TWO NOTABLE WILDFOWL RESORTS 



(1) The Albufera 



For centuries this marine lagoon — the largest sheet of water in 

 Spain — has, along with the forests and wastes that formerly 

 adjoined it, been a stronghold of wild animal-life. As early as 

 the thirteenth century King James L, after wresting the Kingdom 

 of Valencia from the Moors, and dividing its castles and estates 

 among his nobles and generals, selected, with shrewd appreciation, 

 the Albufera for his personal share of the spoils of war. For 

 not only did the great lake with its wild appanages form a truly 

 regal huntinQ;-domain, but the broad lands intervening between 

 the Grao of Valencia, Cullera, and the lake-shores possessed a 

 fabled fertility. 



For six centuries the lands and waters of Albufera belonged 

 to the Spanish Crown. Though by edict in A.D. 1250 James I. 

 granted free public rights of fishing (reserving, however, one- 

 fifth of the catch for royal use), yet both he and succeeding 

 monarchs ever continued to extend and improve the amenities of 

 the Crown Patrimony. 



In State-papers of James I.'s time, where reference is made to 

 the game, there are expressly specified : " Deer, wild-boar, ibex, 

 francolins, partridges, hares, ral)bits, otters, and wildfowl, besides 

 the wealth of fish " in the lake itself. Again, more than four 

 centuries later, an edict of October 31, 1671, expressly specified 

 among resident game, " deer, boar, ibex, and francolin." Now 

 the francolin, although to-day extinct in Spain, is known to 

 have existed on the Mediterranean till quite within modern 

 times, and the other animals named might well have abounded 

 in the wild forests of those days. But the specific mention of 



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