sierra Mor^na 151 



Hardly had the sun gone down, than the easterly gale blew 

 up again with redoubled force. All night it howled through our 

 narrow gorge and around its pinnacled rock-minarets, with the 

 result that at 11 p.m. the ill-secured guys gave way, and down 

 came our tent with a crash. Two hours were spent (in drenching 

 rain) remedying this ; and when day broke, an icy neblina (fog) 

 enveloped the sierra, shutting out all view beyond a few yards. 

 The cold was intense, and a little dam we had engineered the 

 night before was frozen thick. The fog held all that day 

 and the next. Nothing could be done, though we persisted 

 in going out each day, as in duty bound, for a few hours' turn 

 among the crags — how we prayed for one hour's clear interval 

 that might have given that glorious sight we sought ! At dusk 

 the second night snow fell heavily, and later on a thunderstorm 

 added to our joys. Frequent and vivid flashes of lightning lit 

 up the darkness, and caused the surviving chickens (which in 

 common charity we had had tethered inside the tent) to crow so 

 incessantly that sleep was impossible. Presently we noticed a 

 sharp fall in temperature — the men had brought in a cube of 

 ice, the solidified contents of one of our camp-buckets, which they 

 proposed to melt at a little fire kept burning in the tent ! But 

 this was too much, even though it meant " no coffee for 

 breakfast." 



The frost and fog continuing, on the third morning the men 

 proposed we should move lower down the hill, to some cortijo 

 they knew of, thereat to await milder weather. 



By this time, however, the cold had penetrated deep into 

 throat and chest, which felt raw and inflamed, leaving the writer 

 almost speechless. We therefore decided to abandon the whole 

 venture, and struck camp, still wrapt in that opaque shroud of 

 driving: sleet. 



Crossing over the highest ridge of the sierra, between crags 

 of which only the bases were visible, we descended on the south 

 side ; here we organised a " drive " amid the jungles that clothe 

 the lower slopes. Two lynxes and three pigs were reported as 

 seen by the beaters. Only one of the latter, however, came to 

 the gun, and proved to be a sow, bigger by half than any wild- 

 pig we had then seen in Spain. We regretted having no 

 means of weighing this beast, which we estimated at well over 

 200 lbs. clean. A remarkable cast antler picked up at this spot 



