Valencia 323 



the ducks either swimming complacently forward or breaking 

 back over the encircling flotilla, when, in each case, large numbers 

 were killed with crossbows. To celebrate the nuptials of Phillip 

 III., no less than 300 boats were thus employed. The second 

 plan involved persuading hosts of quietly paddling ducks to swim 

 forward into reed-beds through which winding channels had been 

 cut, and over which nets were spread. 



Needless to add, neither method would nowadays serve to 

 outwit twentieth-century wildfowl. 



By the beginning of last century (about 1830), owing to the 

 destruction of forests and reclamation of land for erazino- or rice- 

 cultivation, the bigger game had already disappeared ; but the 

 flights of winter wildfowl actually increased in proportion to the 

 extended area of rice. 



The Albufera continued to be the property of the Crown of 

 Spain from 1250 till May 12, 1865, when the Cortes decreed, 

 and Queen Isabella II. confirmed, its transference to the State. 



At the present day the shooting on Albufera is conducted on 

 purely commercial and up-to-date principles. The whole area 

 is mapped out into sections like a chessboard, and each consider- 

 able gun-post (or replaza^ as it is called) is sold by auction. 



These specially selected 7-eplazas number thirty, and are sold 

 for the entire season, the prices varying from £150 for No. 1 

 down to about £6 for No. 30. 



These thirty "reserved stalls" having been disposed of in 

 public competition, the remaining mid-water positions (for which 

 the charge is a dollar or two per day) are then apportioned by 

 drawing lots. Finally, licences are issued at a few pesetas to 

 shoot from the foreshores or from small launches stationed amongf 

 the reeds at specified spots, but which the licensee must not 

 quit during the shooting. 



The sum that finally filtered through to the State during 

 forty years varied between 7500 and 23,000 pesetas (say £300 

 to £900), a record price being obtained in 1868, namely, 40,000 

 pesetas. The municipality of Valencia is seeking to obtain the 

 cession of the Albufera from the State. 



The gun-posts used are either flat-bottomed boats which can be 

 thrust into a sheltering reed-bed ; or, should no cover be available, 

 sunken tubs masked by reeds or rice-stalks. The posts are fixed 

 nominally at a rifle-shot {tiro de halo) apart — say 200 yards. 



