Our "Home-Mountains" 



351 



stretching great white arms heavenward, as though in agonised 

 appeal. The distant roar of an avalanche is a not infrequent 

 sound throughout the mountain-land. 



The pinsapo-forests of San Cristobal present one of the most 

 striking mountain -landscapes in Andalucia. For some three 

 miles they cover in a semicircle the whole scooped-out amphi- 

 theatre of the mountain-side. Their dark-green masses, contrasted 

 against the white rocks on which they grow — and in winter with 

 yet whiter snow — cluster upwards, tier above tier, from below 

 the 3000-feet level away to the extreme summit of the knife- 



CROSSBILL 



Wrestling with pine-cone. 



edged ridge above, say 5500 feet. Would that we could depict 

 the beauty of the scene. 



Through these dark forests a track winds, and here again the 

 evident industry of the mountaineers surprised. At intervals 

 along this pathway lay great baulks of pine-timber (sleepers, 

 planks, and poles), dressed and piled ready for transport. That 

 such loads could be carried hence on donkey-back, or, were such 

 possible, that the labour could be repaid, appeared incredible — so 

 distant are markets and so heavy the cargo. ^ 



AVe had hoped to find in these forests a home of the Spanish 

 crossbill, but not a sisn of it rewarded our search. To avail the 



1 Pinsiipo timber is fairly liaid, but too "knotty" for general purposes, and it is useless 

 for charcoal. Yet these glorious forests are being sacrificed wholesale because the wood 

 affords "good kindling" for the charcoal-furnace — can wasteful wantonness further go - Tliat 

 the only existing forests of thekiud on earth should be ruthlessly destroyed for no single object 

 but to provide kindling passes understanding. 



