430 The Bearded Vulture 
the Vulture’s cliff below us, On one side of us lay about 100 feet 
of precipitous crags which we had escaladed by using the stratified 
ledges as steps, whilst on the other a wall of rock barred our 
further progress. 
Between the strata was moist earth and a profusion of herbage, 
mixed with loose slabs of rock broken from the main stratum by 
the action of the sun and frost. Amongst these we managed to 
find a footing and, securing myself in a bowline, I crept cautiously 
to the edge of the cliff to the music of the clattering of the loose 
soil and rocks which became detached as I did so. Peering over 
the edge I saw a small shelf not qo ft. below me with an olive 
tree growing on its extreme point. This tree I knew to be exactly 
over the nest and I also knew that the rock it grew on was an 
overhanging one. To the left of the tree (facing the cliff) was a 
convenient grass-grown eully, sloping steeply, with serrated rocks 
cropping out in parallel lines. This offered the safest line of descent 
and a possible means of getting round the over-hanging rock. 
Returning to my comrades, I gave out the ‘special idea.” 
As the place was peculiarly dangerous, I decided to use two ropes. 
So making fast the centre of our 300 ft. coil to a convenient 
crag and throwing the end of the spare coil over the cliff I adjusted 
my sling and rope and dropped over the edge. Hardly had I 
done so, when portions of the surface of the rock above me began 
to crumble and move! | was prepared for this and with the 
aid of the life-line was quickly hauled back and proceeded to 
dislodge the loose rocks. A regular avalanche of rock and rich 
black earth resulted. When all seemed clear, | was lowered foot 
by foot, clearing away all loose rocks as I proceeded. To guard 
in a small way against falling stones, | had filled my sombrero 
with short heather branches before starting and it was lucky | did 
so for from time to time the rope detached small fragments of 
rocks from above. 
