274 A Day in the Lower Sierra 
Spanish name of szevva ‘‘a saw” to the rugged summits of the 
mountains in Spain. 
In my earlier days of cliff climbing I used generally to get to 
work without delay, often by the admittedly risky and uncertain 
process of a frontal attack. But wider experience has shown me 
the wisdom of always seeking to find a way round. One lesson in 
practical geology begot of repeated experience is that in the case of 
any upturned strata, such as I have endeavoured to describe, there 
are almost invariably places where, either owing to want of homo- 
geneity in the rock or other causes, such as resistless pressure, a 
general state of disruption has been brought about. In such 
localities great joints and fissures are to be seen and also places 
where the softer and less enduring portions of the rock have 
weathered out, leaving deep chasms and caverns not infrequently 
choked with masses of broken strata and fragments of rock from 
above. After a rather severe struggle round one of the rocky 
flanks of the main cliff where our course lay, now along a shelf of 
some slippery crag and again through the scrub which grew in 
such abundance upon the successive terraces, we at length reached 
the rear face of the main summit. Here we were confronted by 
huge masses of overhanging rock. By scrambling through a 
narrow gully between two great crags we gained a sort of 
natural look-out fashioned in the solid rock, probably the result 
of a slip or slide, the shelf we were on being the top of the moved 
bed. From this point a good view was obtainable both towards 
the flanks and below, and we saw that some hundred feet from 
the summit there was a series of broken ledges and semi-detached 
crags parallel to the strata of the general face of the precipice and 
forming the central portion of the Vultures’ stronghold. Any 
further movement from this commanding point was however 
impracticable, save with the aid of a rope, the cliff below being 
sheer and unbroken, so we returned through the gulley to the rear 
