CHAPTER XXXV 



OUR "HOME-MOUNTAINS" 



THE SERRANIA DE RUNDA 





1. San Cristobal and the Finsapo Hegion 



This mountain-system may be regarded as an outlying eastern 

 extension of the Sierra Nevada. Except at the "Ultimo Suspire 

 del Moro " there is no actual 

 break, and both in physical 

 features and in fauna the two 

 ranges coincide, while diftering 

 essentially from the Sierra 

 Mor^na, their immediate neigh- 

 bour on the north. The Serrania 

 de Ronda, nevertheless, displays 

 distinctive characters which en- 

 title it to a place in this book ; 

 it forms, moreover, our "Home- 

 mountains," lying within a 

 thirty -mile ride eastward of 

 Jerez. 



The outstandino' feature is 

 the massif — or, in Spanish, 

 Nucleo Central — of San 

 Cristobal, which rises to 5800 



feet, and stands head and shoulders above its surrounding 

 satellites, an imposing pile of cold grey rock and perpendicular 

 precipice. ^ 



Nestling beneath its western bastions lies the Moorish 



' These mountains are believed to overlie vast store of subterrani'an wealth in tlie form of 

 petroleum. (Jeologists seem agreed upon that ; but they differ as to tlie jirecise locality of 

 the treasure or whence it may most conveniently be exploited. 



347 



PINSAPO PINK 



