CHAPTER XXXV 
OUR ‘“HOME-MOUNTAINS” 
THE SERRANIA DE RONDA 
J. San CRISTOBAL AND THE Prvsd4Po REGION 
’ 
THIs mountain-system may be regarded as an outlying eastern 
extension of the Sierra Nevada. 
del Moro” there is no actual 
break, and both in physical 
features and in fauna the two 
ranges coincide, while differing 
essentially from the Sierra 
Moréna, their immediate neigh- 
bour on the north. ‘The Serrania 
de Ronda, nevertheless, displays 
distinctive characters which en- 
title it to a place in this book ; 
it forms, moreover, our ‘“Home- 
mountains,” lying within a 
thirty-mile ride eastward of 
Jerez. 
The outstanding feature is 
the massif—or, in Spanish, 
Nucléo Central—of San 
Cristobal, which rises to 5800 
Except at the ‘‘ Ultimo Suspiro 
PINSAPO PINE 
feet, and stands head and shoulders above its surrounding 
satellites, an imposing pile of cold grey rock and perpendicular 
precipice.’ 
Nestling beneath its western bastions lies the Moorish 
These mountains are believed to overlie vast store of subterranean wealth in the form of 
petroleum. Geologists seem agreed upon that; but they differ as to the precise locality of 
the treasure or whence it may most conveniently be exploited. 
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