28 ENVIRONS OF SAN LUCAR. 



closed to the air when the fermentation should have 

 ceased. 



Thursday^ 6th October. — This morning I again started 

 in a calesa, and, after about four hours' travelUng, 

 accomplished the journey to the little town of Bonanza^ 

 above San Lucar, the distance being 4 leagues. The 

 road was not made in any place, but there were bridges 

 at spots which would be otherwise impassable. After 

 about three or four miles' traveling, I quitted the vine- 

 yards, which for that distance crowned the chalky hilJs 

 on both sides of the valley through which the road 

 passed. The country was now open, and without a 

 single tree or enclosure. I passed several farm stead- 

 ings, if indeed they are worthy of the name. The 

 buildings were of the most wretched description, and in 

 the worst possible repair, contrasting in this respect 

 most strongly with the cellars and pressing-houses in 

 the vineyards, all of which were in good order and well 

 whitewashed. Here, however, no farmer lives upon his 

 farm. At seed time he comes with a sufficient number 

 of people to plough up and sow the land, and returns 

 to the town till the season of harvest again calls him 

 forth. The harvest is collected to a convenient spot, 

 where the grain is trodden out by horses and cattle, and 

 the straw is most generally burned, — and this closes the 

 labours of the year. At one place I saw seven men 

 ploughing, each with a pair of oxen, and following each 

 other in the same furrow. The oxen were yoked by 

 the head — the yokes resting immediately behind the 

 horns, and being secured round the forehead of the 

 animals. Near Bonanza I passed several steep hills of 

 albariza, covered with vines, and terraced on the more 

 precipitous sides. 



