WILD SPAIN. 



(E SPAN A AGEESTE.) 



CHAPTEE I. 



AN OLD-WORLD CORNER OF EUROPE. 



Andalucia and her Mountain-barriers. 



Among European countries Spain stands unique in 

 regard to the range of her natural and physical features. 

 In no other land can there be found, within a similar area, 

 such extremes of scene and climate as characterize the 

 400 by 400 miles of the Iberian Peninsula. Switzerland 

 has alpine regions loftier and more imposing, Eussia 

 vaster steppes, and Norway more arctic scenery : but no- 

 where else in Europe do arctic and tropic so nearly meet 

 as in Spain. Contrast, for example, the stern grandeur of 

 the Sierra Nevada, wrapped in eternal snow, with the 

 almost tropical luxuriance of the Mediterranean shores 

 which lie at its feet. 



Nor is any European country so largely abandoned to 

 nature : nature in wildest primeval garb, untouched by 

 man, untamed and glorious in pristine savagery. The 

 immense extent of rugged sierras which intersect the 

 Peninsula partly explains this ; but a certain sense of in- 

 security and a hatred of rural life inherent in the Spanish 

 breast are still more potent factors. The Spanish people, 

 rich and poor, congregate in town or village, and vast 

 stretches of the " campo," as they call it, are thus left 

 uninhabited, despoblados — relinquished to natural con- 



