306 Unexplored Spain 
over, picks out the best parts of the road. This enables the 
driver to go to sleep, and the plan, we were told, is a good one. 
At Lanjarén (2284 feet) we breakfasted at the ancient fonda 
of San Rafael, where the bright and beautifully polished brass 
and copper cooking utensils hanging on the walls were a sight 
to make a careful housewife envious. We watched our breakfast 
cooked over the charcoal-fire, and learned a good deal thereby. 
We were delayed here a whole day by snow-storms. There is 
stabling under the fonda for 500 pack-animals, for Lanjarén 
in its “season” is an important place, frequented by invalids 
from far and near. Its mineral springs are reputed efticacious ; 
but the drainage arrangements are villainous in the extreme, 
and altogether it seemed a village to be avoided. Sad traces of 
the cholera were everywhere visible, many doors and lintels 
bearing the ominous sign: it was curious that in so few cases 
had it been erased. 
We left before daybreak, and a few leagues farther on the 
ascent became very steep and abrupt, the hill-crests whither we 
were bound within view but wreathed in mist. Only one 
traveller did we meet in the long climb from Orjiva to Capileira, 
and he bringing two mule-loads of dead and dying sheep, worried 
by wolves just outside Capileira the night before. Expecting 
that the wolves would certainly return, we prepared to wait 
up that night for them; but were dissuaded, the argument being 
“that is exactly what they will expect! No, those wolves will 
probably not come back this winter.” But return they did, both 
that night and several following. The night before we left 
Capileira on the return journey (a fortnight later) they came in 
greater numbers than ever and killed over twenty sheep. 
Capileira is the ‘highest hamlet in the sierra and is celebrated 
for its hams, which are cured in the snow. Here we put up for 
the night, sleeping as best we could amidst fowls and fleas, after 
an amusing evening spent around the fire, when one pot cooked 
for forty people besides ourselves. The cold was intense, streams 
of fine snow whirling in at pleasure through the crazy shutters, 
so we were glad to go to bed—indeed I was chased thither by 
a hungry sow on the prowl, seeking something to eat, apparently 
in my portmanteau. 
Heavy snow-falls that night and_all next day prevented our 
advance ; but at an early hour on the following morning we were 
