ANDALUCIA AND HER MOUNTAIH-BARRIERS. 3 



Of different type is the mountain region of the north 

 — the Cantabrian Highlands bordering on Biscay, the 

 Basque Provinces, Galicia and the Asturias, offshoots of the 

 Pyrenean sj-stern. There the country is almost Scandi- 

 navian in type, with deeply rifted valleys, rapid salmon- 

 rivers, and rushing mountain-torrents abounding in 

 trout ; and an alpine fauna including the chamois and 

 bear, ptarmigan, hazel-grouse, and capercaillie. That 

 is a land of rock, snow, and mist-wreath, of birch and 

 pine-forest : abrupt and unfilled, wind-swept and wet 

 as a West Highland moor, the very antithesis of the 



smiling province which most concerns us now — Anda- 

 lucia. This, more African than Africa, in spring, autumn 

 and winter is a paradise, the huerta of Europe, low-lying 

 and protected by the sierras of Nevada and Morena from 

 the deadly breath of the central plateau ; but in the four 

 summer months an infiemo, where every green thing is 

 burnt up by a fiery sun, where shade is not, and where 

 life is only endurable by discarding European habits and 

 adopting those of Moorish or Oriental races. 



Naturally such contrasts of climate and country re-act 

 upon the character of the denizens — be they human or 

 ferce naturce — of a land which includes within its boun- 

 daries nearly all the physical conditions of Europe and 



b 2 



