cp Unexplored Spain 
ibex (¢wice, with an interval of 400 years) appeared inexplicable ; 
for it was inconceivable that a wild-goat should ever have 
oceupied the low-lying dehesas of Albufera. The discovery of 
the actual existence of ibex in the sierras of Valencia, however 
(as recorded above, p. 142), explains the paradox and also throws 
light on the breadth of medizeval ideas in hunting-boundaries ; 
since the Sierra Martés lies some forty miles inland of Albufera. 
Lying about seven miles south-east of Valencia, the lake has 
a water-area some fourteen miles long by six or seven wide, its 
circumference being over nine leagues. On the south, it is shut 
off from the Mediterranean by a strip of pine-clad dunes—the 
deep green foliage broken in pleasing contrast by intervals of 
bare sand, forming splashes of gold amidst dark verdure. On all 
other sides the limits of the lake are marked by yellow reeds 
which fringe its shores. 
Its waters, dotted with the white sails of faluchos, present 
the appearance of a small sea, a resemblance which is accentuated 
in stormy weather by the height of the waves. 
The lake connects by canals with various adjacent villages ; 
while two canals (Perillo and Perillonet) communicate with the 
sea, though their mouths are blocked by locks. These locks are 
closed each year from November 1 till January 1—thereby 
retaining the whole of the river-waters from inland, in order to 
raise the interior water-level and so flood the surrounding rice- 
fields. 
This artificial inundation—by disseminating alluvial matter 
brought down by autumnal rains over the adjacent lands—has 
greatly extended the area of rice-cultivation, and, of course, 
equally reduced the original water-surface. The result has been, 
nevertheless, immensely to augment the enormous numbers of 
wildfowl which had always made the Albufera their winter 
home; for no food is so attractive to ducks as rice, while, 
despite its reduction, the water-area is yet ample. 
During the direct tenure of the Crown, all taking of fish or 
fowl was carried on subject to the regulations of successive kings 
and their administrators. Ancient methods of fowling, however 
quaint, do not concern us as natural historians; but two methods 
described in multitudinous records throw light on altered condi- 
tions and sharpened instincts. The first was to “push” the fowl by 
a line of boats towards sportsmen in concealed posts among reeds, 
