THE CALPE HUNT. 321 



enough, and no man could want a better mount as 

 long as he did not offer to leave the hounds and come 

 Jwme. This proceeding only resulted in more jibbing 

 and kicking. 



Two officials were always to be seen at the Calpe 

 meets, whom one does not see elsewhere the pick 

 and crowbar brigade. This consisted of an old 

 Englishman an army pensioner, I believe and a 

 Spaniard. They were mounted on mules, and each 

 carried a fox-terrier in his arms. Their animals were 

 hung all round with implements for digging out the 

 fox spades, crowbars, pickaxes, and tongs. The 

 Englishman, clad in an old huntsman's frock, breeches, 

 and gaiters, might have passed as an earthstopper at 

 home. It was the Spaniard whose appearance always 

 provoked a smile. Attired as he was in a sombrero 

 and mantle, he looked so entirely out of keeping with 

 his surroundings. The grave, Donnish face added to 

 the incongruity. The necessity for these men lay, of 

 course, in the impossibility of stopping a country 

 almost entirely consisting of rocky hills. In the same 

 way the Dartmoor Hounds have a terrier-boy, who 

 carries a couple of terriers in saddle-bags for use 

 among the rocky tors of that wild district. At 

 Gibraltar, where a straightaway run and a kill in the 

 open are equally the exception, it was unusual not to 

 be able to summon these officials to extract the quarry 

 from his refuge. 



The hunting country at Gibraltar may be divided 

 roughly into two kinds. It is hardly necessary to say 

 that in English territory there is no room for hunting. 



