. Unexplored Spain. Hunting; Natural history. Our "Home-Mountains" 351 stretching great white arms heavenward, as though in agonised appeal. The distant roar of an avalanche is a not infrequent sound throughout the mountain-land. The pinsapo-forests of San Cristobal present one of the most striking mountain-landscapes in Andalucia. For some three miles they cover in a semicircle the whole scooped-out amphi- theatre of the mountain-side. Their dark-green masses, contrasted against the white rocks on which they grow—and in winter with yet whiter snow—cluster upwards, tier above tier, f
. Unexplored Spain. Hunting; Natural history. Our "Home-Mountains" 351 stretching great white arms heavenward, as though in agonised appeal. The distant roar of an avalanche is a not infrequent sound throughout the mountain-land. The pinsapo-forests of San Cristobal present one of the most striking mountain-landscapes in Andalucia. For some three miles they cover in a semicircle the whole scooped-out amphi- theatre of the mountain-side. Their dark-green masses, contrasted against the white rocks on which they grow—and in winter with yet whiter snow—cluster upwards, tier above tier, from below the 3000-feet level away to the extreme summit of the knife-. CROSSBILL Wrestling with pine-cone. edged ridge above, say 5500 feet. Would that we could depict the beauty of the scene. Through these dark forests a track winds, and here again the evident industry of the mountaineers surprised. At intervals along this pathway lay great baulks of pine-timber (sleepers, planks, and poles), dressed and piled ready for transport. That such loads could be carried hence on donkey-back, or, were such possible, that the labour could be repaid, appeared incredible—so distant are markets and so heavy the cargo.^ We had hoped to find in these forests a home of the Spanish crossbill, but not a sign of it rewarded our search. To avail the ' Pinsapo timber is fairly hard, but too "knotty" for general purposes, and it is useless for charcoal. Yet these glorious forests are being sacrificed wholesale because the wood affords "good kindling" for the charooal-furuace—can wasteful wantonness further go ? That the only existing forests of the kind on earth should be ruthlessly destroyed for no single object but to provide kindling passes Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, booksubjecthunting, booksubjectnaturalhistory
