422 The Bearded Vulture 
could reach the nest from where I was. Half an hour later they 
joined me bringing with them my three ropes, namely 100 ft. 
each of 2 in. and 1} in. and 75 ft. of 14 in. Alpine rope. Time 
pressed and the cold was so intense that it was useless to think 
of attempting to join our ropes together by long-splicing them 
and so we decided to join them by knotting. I adjusted my 
canvas sling and, making myself fast to the 15 in. rope, started 
away down the cliff. 
The first portion of the descent was simple enough, usually 
down steep grass-grown gullies alternating with low cliffs of 
20 to 30 ft. The general conformation of the mountain was of 
stratified limestone uptilted almost vertically and presenting the 
edge of the stratum to the face of the cliff. As a rule, it was 
easy enough, with the aid of a rope, to drop over these steep 
places, usually through some narrow gully choked with fractured 
rocks between the uptilted strata. 
After descending about 120 ft. in this manner I came to a fairly 
safe terrace whence some 20 ft. below me | could see our land-mark, 
the ‘petrified artichoke.” In a few minutes 1 was down along- 
side of it. Here I had a good look round and was surprised to 
note the great height I was at, for although now only some 
350 ft. above our mules below, the valley we had ascended in 
the morning fell steeply to a small Moorish village nigh 2,000 ft. 
below and the view to my front was in consequence most exten- 
sive, despite the drifting clouds about the higher peaks. 1 now 
endeavoured to find a way round the cliff immediately below me 
and got down some 30 ft. or so to my left (facing the cliff) only 
to find the ledge I was on merged into the cliff. My climb was 
not a waste of time for it showed me that there was only one 
possible way to get at the nest and that was to go over the edge 
of a rather beetling crag a few feet to the left of the artichoke. 
So I retraced my way up to the ledge 20 ft. above it and there 
