Line Throwing over Lofty Trees 229 
we did not even attempt it. And impossible it doubtless was from 
his point of view, and a more intrepid and skilful tree-climber I 
never met. 
Owing to the somewhat lonely position of this tree, given a fair 
wind, it would be quite possible to get a line over the top of it 
by means of flying a kite, and had we remained in the neighbour- 
hood a few days longer I should assuredly have tried this. To 
those who have not heard of it I may say at once that the idea 
is not original. I first obtained it, many years ago, from reading 
how a British Bluejacket, during our occupation of Egypt following 
on the campaign of 1801, succeeded in climbing Pompey’s Pillar 
at Alexandria by such means. 
This kite-flying method of getting a line over an awkward tree 
is, of course, not suitable if it be surrounded by others, as with 
the first Vulture’s nest we visited. To get a rope over such a tree 
my own panacea would be to employ one of the late Captain 
D’Arcy Irvine’s line-throwing guns. Were I at the beginning, 
instead of nearing the end, of my tree-climbing career I should 
certainly look upon one of these ingenious weapons as an essential 
article among my birdsnesting equipment. With the aid of one, 
lent me by the inventor in 1895, I found it quite simple to throw 
a line with accuracy over a selected bough in a lofty elm tree. 
Once the line, which is carried by a stick, has been shot over the 
required spot, it is, of course, a simple matter to haul the necessary 
ropes over it and to make the ascent. 
I left these beautiful wooded mountains of the Guadarrama 
with genuine regret. Brief as was our stay among them, they 
daily gave us new experiences, and we saw much of absorbing 
interest. 
Very fresh in my memory are the rides in the great pine 
forest through apparently never-ending vistas of huge and serried 
tree-stems, as now we threaded our way noiselessly over the deep 
