go Unexplored Spain 
above mentioned, has a curious effect when eaten by mares (which 
is often the case when other food is scarce) of inducing a form of 
intoxication from which many die. Indeed, the 
deaths from Hnsapinadas represent a serious loss 
to horse-breeders whose mares are sent to graze in 
the marismas. Cattle are not affected. 
Formerly the Sapina possessed a commercial 
value, being used (owing to its alkaline qualities) in 
the manufacture of soap. Nowadays it is replaced 
by other chemicals. 
Here and there, owing to some imperceptible 
gradient, the marisma is traversed by broad channels 
called cafios, where, by reason of the water having 
a definite flow, the soil has become less saline. The 
armajo at such spots becomes scarce or disappears 
altogether, its place being taken by quite different 
plants, namely: Spear-grass (Cyperus), Candilejo, Bayunco, 
the English names of which we do not know. 
Efforts have been made from time to time to reclaim and 
utilise portions of the marisma by draining the water to the 
river; but failure has invariably resulted for the following 
reasons : 
(1) The intense saltness of the soil. 
(2) That the marisma lies largely on a lower level than the 
river banks. 
(3) The river being tidal, its water is salt or brackish. 
There are vast areas of far better land in Spain which might 
be reclaimed with certainty and at infinitely less cost. 
The only human inhabitants of the marisma are a few herds- 
men whose reed-built huts are scattered on remote vetas. There 
are also the professional wildfowlers with their cabresto-ponies ; 
but this class is disappearing as, bit by bit, the system of 
‘‘ preservation” extends over the wastes. Though the climate 
is healthy enough except for a period just preceding the autumn 
rains, yet our keepers and most of those who live here per- 
manently are terrible sufferers from malaria. Quinine, they tell 
us, costs as much as bread in the family economy. 
We quote the following impression from Wild Spain, p. 78 :— 
The utter loneliness and desolation of the middle marismas call forth 
sensations one does not forget. Hour after hour one pushes forward 
SAMPHIRE 
