234 SHORT STALKS 



very nervous bridge. Two fir stems, side hy side, had 

 been thrown across a rocky place just below^ camp, with 

 the thin end of one of tliem against the l)ase of the other. 

 The effect of this was, that while one foot rested on a rigid 

 foundation, the other danced and sw^ayed uncontrollal)ly, 

 and the white water tearino- Ijelow did not tend to allay 

 the involuntary trembling of the knees. 



On a little platform overlooking the river and the little 

 park of beeches, there is a tolerable hay-loft or barn, the 

 only 1 )uilding of which the valley can Ijoast, and there is 

 room besides to pitch the tents. Of late years the hut 

 has been extended, and divided by two partitions so that 

 it affords very fair quarters. 



The slopes of this valley, and of one or two others like 

 it, are the home of the Pyrenean ibex, one of the rarest of 

 animals and most difficult to ol)tain.^ Unlike the Alpine 

 ibex, which inhabits open cliffs, the Spanish goat takes full 

 advantage of the covert afforded by the dense scrub. This 

 variation of habit results in a different curvature of the 

 horns, the points of which in the Pyrenean bouquetin are 

 bent towards each other over the back — a form designed 



^ Other ranges in Central and Sontliern Sj^ain are inhabited Ly a variety 

 of the same animal, somewhat smaller as I understand, Imt otherwise closely 

 allied, if not alisolutely identical with Capra I'lircnaica. According to ]^[r. 

 Lydekker who is an ai;thority on the subject, "there is evidence that in 

 Andalusia the species has existed since the Pleistocene epoch, its fossil 

 remains occurring in the caves of Gibraltar in company with those of an 

 extinct rhinoceros and other mammals." The younger Pliny ajjpeai's to have 

 known the animal. His translator renders him: "There is in Spaine a 

 kind of a musmones, not altogether unlike to sheep, having a shag more 

 like the hair of goats than a fleece with sheepes wooll. The beast hath a 

 most tender head, and therefore in his pasture is forced to feed with his 

 tail to the sun." — Philemon Holland's Translation, a.d. 1601. 



