48 
CHARRE RIV: 
ON CLIMBING IN GENERAL. 
First bird studies at Gibraltar—Climbing the Rock—The bogey of vertigo 
—Its cure—To the masthead in H.M.S. Simoom—Escape from Bluejackets— 
Climb round “the back of the Rock ’’—A very awkward question: ‘‘ Chucking 
out ballast”—Exploration of St. Michael's Cave, ‘Clincher Hole ’’—Descent 
into Europa Ravine Caverns—Subsequent Cave explorers and climbers and their 
fate—The ‘ Unclimbable”’ fence. 
HAVE already briefly described how 
when I first found myself at Gib- 
raltar in 1874 I devoted most of my 
time to the study of the birds of the 
country. During the first winter 
I was on the Rock I set to work 
to collect all the species new to me, 
which I skinned and_ preserved. 
Also I occupied the tedious hours 
when ‘“‘on guard” (a recurring event 
at that date of every fifth or sixth 
day), in making water-colour draw- 
ings of birds from specimens ob- 
tained, endeavouring always to depict them in the attitudes in which 
I had watched them when alive. Of course with the return of 
spring I was ever on the look-out for nests and climbing in quest of 
them. And this went on during successive winters and springs on 
the Rock. But I did not restrict my climbing to the nesting season 
