o f the country gentlemen,, confifts in pafture, honey and
wax. • They have ftuds of brood maTes, and a breed o f
eows, which all over Eftremadura are whitiih or red. It
is feven leagues from Guabaguela to Alcocer, over an
uneven ground, watered by a great many fprings. You
next come to Tallarubia,. whofe diftrict is level, and pro
per for pafture. The rocks of fandor quartz are feen no-
more, but many loofe pieces of each lie fcattered' on the
furface o f the ground; the rocks have perpendicular laminated
fiffures, fome thin, others thick, which feem to
demonftrate their fucceflive decomposition into arable
land, and the fame happens with the quartz rocks on the
hills. The flaty rock is compofed of argillaceous earth,
and fine fand, and from them, when they decompofe,.
comes that fine fand- feen in the brooks, and on thefides
o f the road, the water carrying away all the argillaceous
earth, which does not cling faft to the roots o f ihrubs,
or trees. Some rocks hereabouts,, are apparently as
hard as the Egyptian, Bafaltes, and of the fame colour,
and. nature. ; neverthelefs they moulder away like the reft,
and turn into- earth. In the midft of this vitrifiable
country, the calcareous ftone begins to form itfelf, and
is feen difperfed up and down» on the furface, like
patches.
The paftures called JDeheJas de la Serena^ are contigur
ous, being a depopulated diftrid o f nine, leagues extent,
tent, reaching to the village of Coronada, confifting o f a
plain without either trees or plants. At the end o f this
diftrid, there are rocks o f white quartz, veined with a
pale red; alfo a great many oaks and wild olive trees, as
well as that ipecies o f crowfoot, called ranunculus fica-
ria by Linnaeus, whofe roots are like barley corns, and
from their refemblance to external hemorrhoides, fanciful
people have imagined they had the virtue o f curing them.
From Coronada, it is a journey of three hours to
Villanueva de la Serena, from whence an extenfive plain,
entirely o f fand, reaches to the village of Don Benito,
neverthelefs fertile in corn, vines, pears, figs, 8cc. owing
to the proximity o f the water, as appears from
the quantities of ruihes fpringing up every where;
for, though the furface is covered with a loofe fand,
for two or three feet, there is a bed of a more firm and
compad fort underneath, which fupports the water,
without the afliftance of clay, hard earth, or rock, to
impede its filtration; fo that this foil will often produce
thirty for on e ; it being enough to plant a
branch of a fig-tree, or a flake o f an olive, for it
foon to take root, and give fruit; yet, notwithftanding
all thefe advantages, great part o f the country lies wafte,
as far as Medellin, on the banks of the Guadiana, whofe
houfes are fmall, and only o f one ftory. In the centre o f
Medellin, they ihewed me an humble manfion, though
I i 2 worthy