122 Unexplored Spain 



sight. Tliough apparently unhurt, one of their company may 

 turn over, stone-dead, in the distance. 



" Flighting " — an Incident of a Di!Y Season 



The day above described was selected, not only because it 

 affords a typical illustration of our theme, l)ut also because there 

 had occurred during its course an extraneous incident which 

 serves to amplify this exposition of the pursuit of the greylag 

 goose. 



Kidino- across the marisma, certain sio;ns at once filled 

 both our minds with fresh ideas. All around the ground was 

 littered with cast feathers and other evidence proclaiming that 

 this special spot was a regular resort of geese. We were crossing 

 one of those slightly raised ridges of sand and grit which here and 

 there intersect the otherwise universal dead-level of alluvial mud, 

 and which ridges are known locally as vetas — tongues. 



Now the nutritive economy of wild-geese, as already explained, 

 requires a frequently replenished store of sand or grit. In wet 

 seasons (the marisma being then submerged) the geese resort to 

 the adjoining sand-dunes of Dofiana to secure these supplies. 

 But in dry winters they are enabled to obtain the necessary 

 sand from these vctas ; and it was to this particular spot that, 

 to the number of many hundreds, the geese were evidently resort- 

 ing at this period. 



At once the measure of opportunity was gauged, and the 

 arrangements necessary for its exploitation were made. AVithin 

 three minutes a messenger was galloping homewards to summon 

 a couple of men with spades and buckets to prepare a hole 

 wherein one of us might lie concealed at daybreak. A pannier- 

 mule to carry away the excavated material was also requisitioned, 

 since the least visible change in the earth's surface would instantly 

 be recognised by the geese as a danger-signal. Within a few 

 minutes we had resumed our course, to continue the day's sport. 



Next morning half an hour before dawn the writer reached 

 the spot. It was pitch-dark and a dense fog prevailed. By 

 what mental process my guides directed an unerring course to 

 that lonely hole in the midst of a pathless and practically bound- 

 less waste passes understanding. Such piloting (without aid 

 of compass or even of the heavenly bodies — the usual index on 



