148 Unexplored Spain 
a central northern projection which would embrace all the 
Midland Counties as far as Nottingham ! 
[In any survey of the Sierra Moréna, it is appropriate to 
include the adjoining Montes de Toledo. They, as just stated, 
form a north-trending pyramidal apex based on the main chain 
and presenting identical characteristics, both physical and faunal, 
though of lower general elevation. The Montes de Toledo, in 
short, are an intricate complication of low subrounded hills— 
rather than mountains—tacked on to the north of Moréna, all 
scrub-clad and inhabited by the same wild beasts. Toledan stags 
exhibit the same magnificent cornual development, and there is 
evidence of seasonal intermigration as between two adjacent 
regions only divided by the valley of the Guadiana—a shortage 
in one area being sometimes found to be compensated by a 
corresponding increase in the other. Roe-deer are more abundant 
in the lower range; but the sole clean-cut faunal distinction lies 
in the presence of wild fallow-deer in the Montes de Toledo— 
these animals being quite unknown in Moréna.*] 
May we digress on a cognate subject? The Sierra Nevada, 
though so near (at one point the two ranges are merely separated 
by a narrow gap yclept Los Llanos de Jaén), yet presents totally 
divergent natural phenomena. 
There are points in Moréna—say from the heights above 
Despefiaperros—whence the two systems can be surveyed at 
once. Behind you, on the north, roll away, ridge beyond ridge, 
the endless rounded skylines of Moréna—colossal yet never 
abrupt. In front, to the south—apparently within stone’s- 
throw—rise the stupendous snow-peaks of Nevdda—jagged 
pinnacles piercing the heavens to nigh 12,000 feet. 
These peaks may appear within stone’s-throw, or say an easy 
day’s ride, though that is an optical illusion. But narrow as it 
is, that gap of Jaén divides two mountain-regions utterly dis- 
similar in every attribute, whether as to the manner of their birth 
in remote ages and the landscapes they present to-day. 
Faunal distinctions are also conspicuous. In Nevada there 
are found neither deer of any kind (whether red, roe, or fallow) 
1 The Montes de Toledo comprise some of the best big-game country in Spain and include 
several of her most famous preserves ; such, for example, as the Coto de Cabafieros belonging 
to the Conde de Valdelagrana, El Castillo, a domain of the Duke of Castillejos, and Zumajo 
of the Marques de Alventos. The Duke of Aridn possesses « wild tract inhabited by 
fallow-deer. 
