Misfortunes never come singly 449 
the spot two years before, I could not precisely identify the point 
where [| had then posted my lowering party. So selecting what 
seemed to be the lowest suitable spot, I donned my canvas sling 
and started away down the cliff. Very soon after I had posted 
my reduced lowering party and dropped down some 50 ft. | 
discovered I was losing my direction and inclining too much to the 
left (facing the cliff). Whilst engaged in altering the lead of my 
rope to the right so as to recover my proper line, a warning cry 
from above caused me to look upwards. It was lucky I did so, for 
my rope was bearing against a big perched rock balanced on the 
edge of a crag some 30 ft. exactly above me. My Spanish assistant, 
an ex-goatherd and daring cragsman, who had been with me on divers 
occasions, now descended cautiously and after | had moved back a 
few yards, toppled the rock over clear of me and it went thundering 
down for hundreds of feet. Relieved from this unexpected peril, 
I continued my descent until I reached the grassy ledge imme- 
diately above the famous “ artichoke ” described in the last chapter. 
And now I made one of those unfortunate mistakes which, like 
so many mistakes in life, seem at their inception to be so trivial 
and yet lead to very awkward results. In the interval which had 
elapsed since I was last in this part of the cliff I had made many 
other descents and I was rather uncertain of the exact line I had 
then taken to get at the nest. Also, I had lively recollections of 
the difficulties and dangers of the descent in 1906 upon the 
occasion when the rope jambed and so was anxious if possible 
to find a new and easier way down. So I signalled to the mule- 
teer, nigh 4oo ft. below, to ask the exact position of the nest, and 
he waved to me to move to the right (facing the cliff) of the 
“artichoke.” This was reassuring, for here I saw a grassy gully 
which, although nearly vertical and obviously slippery, looked 
infinitely more inviting than did the projecting rocks immediately 
below me of which I had such a disagreeable remembrance. 
29 
