ii8 



Unexplored Spain 



bure ground from the telescopic sight of wild-geese ? Occasion ally, 

 some small natural advantage may be found — such as tufts of 

 rushes — and these are at once availed of. But this morning 

 there is no such aid. Not a rush nor a mole-hill breaks that 

 dead-level monotone for miles ; and in such condition a human 

 being, liowever flat he may lie, is bound to be detected by the 

 keen-eyed geese long ere they arrive within shot.^ A dozen twigs 

 of tree-heath, dipped in w^et mud and then allowed to dry, so as 

 to harmonise in colour with the surroundings, may be utilised ; 

 but the annexed sketch shows better than words a portable 

 screen we have devised and which fulfils this purpose. It consists 

 of four bamboo sticks two feet long, sharpened at the point, and 

 connected by four or five strings with one-foot intervals. This 

 when rolled up forms a bundle no thicker than an umbrella. 



SHELTERS FOR DRIVING WILD-GEESE 



On reaching one's post the bundle unrolls of itself, the sharpened 

 points are stuck into the ground at an angle sloping towards the 

 prostrate gun, a few tufts of dead grass (carried in one's pocket) 

 are woven through the strings and the shelter is complete. 

 Needless to say, these preparations must be carried out with the 

 minimum of movement in face of such vioilant foes. Some 



o 



assistance, however, accrues from the geese continuing to w^atch 

 the moving file of horsemen while the prostrate gunner erects 

 his screen. 



Well, the circle being complete, all four drivers (distant now, 

 say, 1000 yards) converge on the common centre. The watchful 

 geese have ceased grubbing up the spear-grass, and now stand 



' We have here in our mind's ej'e our own shooting-grounds in the Bietican marismas. 

 But there are other regions in Andahicia where geese feed on open grassy plains on which 

 shelter of some sort is often available. It may be but a clump of dead thistles or wild 

 asparagus ; but at happy times a friendly ditch or dry watercourse will yield quite a decent 

 hollow where one can hide in comiiarative comfort and security. On the day here described 

 no such "advantage" befriended. 



