304 In the Upper Sierra 
ledge, in fact the Spaniards style it and similar spots 47 Cuchzllo, 
the knife-edge. To anybody accustomed to heights it is of course 
a place of no account, yet I have known good sportsmen, who have 
been compelled to cross it in pursuit of ibex, speak of it with bated 
breath. My Spanish companions on the occasion of my visit, men 
of the sierra, regaled me with a story how once an Englishman, 
finding himself in the middle of it, had laid himself down and held 
on to the mountain with both hands! 
This mountain is one of those—there are many—where the 
Spanish ibex still holds its own. On various occasions when 
seeking nests or watching Eagles, I have come across these 
animals, sometimes in considerable numbers. One day I chanced 
to see about twenty-five feeding together on a rocky hillside 
on the grassy patches amid the cistus scrub. I was high above 
them and they had no idea of my presence and presently began 
to move off slowly westward, feeding as they went. My route 
home lay along the bed of a steep rocky gorge and reckoning 
that they must cross this I worked along it very quietly, keeping 
a sharp look-out, and had the good fortune to intercept the herd 
and get within 60 yards of it. There were nine bucks, three with 
very fine heads (of course, larger than any I had ever seen), two 
ordinary and four smaller ones. It was 17 March. I had no 
rifle with me and so after watching them for some time at close 
range, | showed myself, when they made off slowly up the hill. 
When I first went to Spain there were still a few wolves in 
these sierras but they have been almost exterminated by poison 
owing to their depredations among the sheep and goats. The last 
one to my knowledge was seen by the late Major Harry Fergusson 
when out after ibex and passed close to his comrade who, despite 
Fergusson’s adjurations, refrained from shooting it as he imagined 
it must be a big dog! From what I hear, the numbers of both 
Bearded Vultures and Eagles have been sensibly reduced by this 
habit of laying poison for wolves and foxes, 
