66 Unexplored Spain 



to give notice of the movements of game within. But in (more 

 or less) open country where a view, oneself unseen, can be 

 obtained afar, the situation is modified. The following is an 

 example : — 



Corral Quemado, Februarij 1, IDO'J. — The authors occupied 

 the two outmost posts on a high sand-ridge which commanded an 

 introspect far away into the heart of the covert. Already before 

 the distant signal had announced that the converging lines of 

 beaters had joined, suddenly an apparition showed up. Some 

 300 yards away a low pine-clad ridge traversed the forest horizon, 

 and in that moment the shadows beneath became, as by magic, 

 illumined by an inspiring spectacle — the tracery of great spreading 

 antlers surmounting the sunlit grey face and neck of a glorious 

 stag. For twenty seconds the apparition (and we) remained 

 statuesque as cast in bronze. Then, with the suddenness and 

 silence of a shifting shadow, the deep shade was vacant once 

 more. The stag had retired. It boots not to recall those agonies 

 of self-reproach that gnawed one's very being. Suffice it, they 

 were undeserved ; for five or six minutes later that stag re- 

 appeared, leisurely cantering forward. Clearly no specific sign 

 or suspicion of danger ahead had struck his mind or dictated 

 that retirement. But his course was now, by mere chance and 

 uncalculated cunning, 300 yards outside the sphere of your 

 humble servants, the authors. That stag was now about to 

 ofifer a chance to gun No. 3, instead of, as originally, to Nos. 

 1 and 2. Eagerly we both watched his course, now halting 

 on some ridge to reconnoitre, gaze shifting, and ears deflecting 

 hither and thither, anon making good another stage towards 

 the goal of escape. A long shallow canuto (hollow) concealed 

 his bulk from view, but we now saw by the bunchy "show" 

 on top that this was a prize of no mean merit. Then came 

 the climax. Rising the slope which ended the canuto, in an 

 instant the stag stopped, petrified. Straight on in front of 

 him, not 100 yards ahead, lay No. 3 gun, and the fatal fact 

 had been discovered. It may have been an untimely movement, 

 perhaps a glint of sunray on exposed gun-barrel, or merely the 

 outline of a cap three inches too high — anyway the ambush had 

 been detected, and now the stag swung at right angles and 

 sought in giant bounds to pass behind No. 2. It was a long 



