Page:A Handbook for Travellers in Spain - Vol 1.djvu/37

Rh most interesting remains and picturesque portions of the Peninsula. The railways only connect large cities. Diligences generally arrive and depart at some abnormal hour of the night, and the stuffiness and jolting of them is intolerable.—H. F. W.

The following is a pleasant long-vacation trip for the angler, the pedestrian, or the water-colour painter.

Shooting.—Although game is not so universally preserved in Spain as among ourselves, yet it is abundant; Nature, by covering the earth with aromatic brushwood in vast extents of uninhabited, uncultivated land, has afforded excellent cover to the wild beasts of the field and fowls of the air. Near Cadiz, Seville, and Madrid, some of the land-owners and farmers preserve the game on their own estates; on other lands, near towns, the game is poached and destroyed at all seasons, more for pot considerations than for sport; but wherever the lords of creation are rude and rare, the feræ naturæ are abundant, and take care of themselves. Spain was always the land of the rabbit (conejo), which the Phœnicians saw here for the first time, and hence some have traced the origin of the name Hispania to the Sephan, or rabbit of the Hebrew. This animal figured on the early coins of the cuniculosæ Celti Iberiæ. Large ships freighted with them were regularly sent from Cadiz for the supply of Rome. The rabbit is still the favourite shooting of Spaniards, who look invariably to the larder. Pheasants are rare: a bird requiring artificial feeding cannot be expected to thrive in a country where half the population is underfed. Red-legged partridges and hares are most plentiful. Thousands are exported every year to France. The mouths of the great rivers swarm with aquatic birds. In Andalucia the multitude of bustards and woodcocks is incredible. There is very little difficulty in procuring leave to shoot in Spain; a licence to carry arms is required of every one, and another licence to shoot game. An Englishman will have no difficulty in obtaining the first, whilst the second is merely a question of paying the small annual tax, which varies in prices in certain localities. The moment a Spaniard gets out of town he shoulders a gun, for the custom of going armed is immemorial. Game is usually divided into great and small: the Caza mayor includes deer, venados, wild boars, javalis, and the chamois tribe, cabras montesas: by Caza menor is understood foxes, rabbits, partridges, and such like “small deer.” Winter fowl is abundant wherever there is water, and the flights of quails and woodcocks, codornices y gallinetas, are quite marvellous. The Englishman will find shooting in the neighbourhood of Seville and Gibraltar.

Fishing.—The lover of the angle will find virgin rivers in Spain, that