1 62 Unexplored Spain 



day's operation, excepting only that on my immediate front there 

 yawned a deep ravine (canada) into the full depth of which I 

 could not see. 



Already within a few minutes one had become aware, by a 

 far-distant shot, and by the echoing note of the bugle faintly 

 borne on a gentle northerly breeze, that the beat had begun. At 

 dawn that morning the four huntsmen, each with his pack, had 

 left the lodge, and are now encircling some seven or eight miles of 

 covert on our front, two-thirds of which lay beneath my gaze. 



For five hours I occupied that puesto sitting between 

 convenient rocks, and hardly a measurable spell of the five 



hours but I was held alert, either by the 

 actual sight of game afoot — far distant, it 

 is true — or by the shots and bugle-calls of 

 the hunters and the music of their packs 

 — all signs of game on the move. 



It is instructive, though rarely possible, 

 to watch wild game thus, when danger 

 threatens, and to observe the wiles by 

 which they seek escape — doubling back on 

 their own tracks till nearlv face to face 

 with the baying podencos, and then, by 

 a smart flank -movement, skirting round 

 behind the pack, till actually between the 

 latter and the following huntsmen ; then lying flat, awaiting 

 till perchance the latter has gone by ! That is our stag's plan 

 — bold and comprehensive — yet it fails when that huntsman, 

 biding his time, perceives that his pack have overrun the 

 scent and recalls them to make quite sure of that intervening 

 bit of bush — poor staggie ! Rarely indeed, even in mountain- 

 lands, do such chances of watching the whole play (and bye- 

 play) occur as those we enjoyed to-day on the Llanos del 

 Peco. Shots are apt to be quite diflicult, as all bushes and 

 many trees are in full leaf (January) and the ray as, or rides cut 

 out along the shooting-line, barely twenty yards broad. To-day, 

 moreover, the wind shifting from north to east operated greatly 

 to our disadvantage — practically, in effect, ruined the plan. 



The first stag that came my way had already touched the 

 tainted breeze ere I saw him — being slightly deaf (the effects of 

 quinine) I had not heard his approach. Instantly he crossed the 



