  The emergence and the evolution of the metallic charge transport in the
La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4} system from lightly- to optimally-doped samples (x = 0.01
- 0.17) are studied. We demonstrate that in high-quality single crystals the
in-plane resistivity shows a metallic behavior for ALL values of x at moderate
temperatures and that the hole mobility at 300 K changes only by a factor of 3
from x = 0.01 to 0.17, where its x-dependence is found to be intriguingly
similar to that of the inverse antiferromagnetic correlation length. We discuss
an incoherent-metal picture and a charged-stripe scenario as candidates to
account for these peculiar features.

Superconductivity