322 Unexplored Spain 



ibex {twice, with an interval of 400 years) appeared inexplicable ; 

 for it was inconceivable that a wild-goat should ever have 

 occupied the low-lying dehesas of Albufera. The discovery of 

 the actual existence of ibex in the sierras of Valencia, however 

 (as recorded above, p. 142), explains the paradox and also throws 

 lioht on the breadth of mediaeval ideas in hunting-boundaries ; 

 since the Sierra Martes lies some forty miles inland of Albufera. 



Lying about seven miles south-east of Valencia, the lake has 

 a water-area some fourteen miles long by six or seven wide, its 

 circumference being over nine leagues. On the south, it is shut 

 off from the Mediterranean by a strip of pine-clad dunes — the 

 deep green foliage broken in pleasing contrast by intervals of 

 bare sand, forming splashes of gold amidst dark verdure. On, all 

 other sides the limits of the lake are marked by yellow reeds 

 which fringe its shores. 



Its waters, dotted with the white sails of faluchos, present 

 the appearance of a small sea, a resemblance which is accentuated 

 in stormy weather by the height of the waves. 



The lake connects by canals with various adjacent villages ; 

 while two canals (Perillo and Perillonet) communicate with the 

 sea, though their mouths are blocked by locks. These locks are 

 closed each year from November 1 till January 1 — thereby 

 retainino- the whole of the river-waters from inland, in order to 

 raise the interior water-level and so flood the surrounding rice- 

 fields. 



This artificial inundation — by disseminating alluvial matter 

 brought down by autumnal rains over the adjacent lands — has 

 greatly extended the area of rice -cultivation, and, of course, 

 equally reduced the original water-surface. The result has been, 

 nevertheless, immensely to augment the enormous numbers of 

 wildfowl which had always made the Albufera their winter 

 home ; for no food is so attractive to ducks as rice, while, 

 despite its reduction, the water-area is yet ample. 



Durino; the direct tenure of the Crown, all takino- of fish or 

 fowl was carried on subject to the regulations of successive kings 

 and their administrators. Ancient methods of fowling, however 

 quaint, do not concern us as natural historians ; but two methods 

 described in multitudinous records throw light on altered condi- 

 tions and sharpened instincts. The first was to "push" the fowl by 

 a line of boats towards sportsmen in concealed posts among reeds. 



