Sierra de Credos 213 



entered the ancient city that boasts bygone glories, splendid 

 temples, and memories of mediaeval magnificence, but which is 

 now . . . well, Avila. But one feature of Avila demands passing 

 note — its massive walls, withstanding the centuries, full forty 

 feet in height by fifteen feet broad. An hour later the Sud- 

 express dashed up whistling into the station, to the genuine 

 alarm of my leather-clad mountain-lads, who recoiled in fear from 

 an unwonted sight. They, noticing that the officials of the train 

 also spoke a foreign tongue (French), asked me if such things (i.e. 

 railway trains) were " only for your Excellencies " — meaning for 

 foreigners, vos-otros. 



At Paris a reassuring telegram filled me with joy indescribable, 

 but in London and at York further messages intensified anxiety. 

 On August 29 I reached home, and on the evening of September 3 

 doubts were resolved, and the silver cord was loosed. 



The Plaza de Almanzor, with its immediate environment, 

 presents a panorama of mountain-scenery unrivalled, not only in 

 the whole cordillera of Gredos, but probably in all Spain — it may 

 be questioned if the world itself contains a more striking landscape 

 than that known as the " Circo de Gredos." Briefly put, a vast 

 central amphitheatre of rock— really four-square (though known 

 as the " Circo") in the depths of which nestle an alpine lake — is 

 enclosed by stupendous rock-walls and precipices of granite ; some 

 of these smooth and sheer, others rugged and disintegrated or 

 broken up by snow-filled gorges of intricacies that defy the power 

 of pen to describe. Three of these vast mural ramparts stand 

 almost rectangular, the fourth shoots out obliquely, traversing 

 the abysmal enclave and all but closing the fourth side of 

 its quadrilateral. The rough sketch-map at p. 141 shows the 

 configuration better than written words, while the photos convey, 

 so far as such can, some idea of the scenery.^ 



The actual peak of Almanzor which dominates the whole 

 " Circo," as viewed from the north, culminates in a flattened 

 cone, the summit being split into two huge rock -needles or 

 pinnacles separated by an unfathomed fissure between. Only 

 one of these needles — and that the lower — has yet been scaled. 

 The loftier of the pair, though it only surpasses its fellow by a 



^ For these, as well as graphic notes on the subject, we are indebted to Sr. D. Manuel F. 

 de Amezua, the most experienced and intrepid explorer of the Sierra de Gredos. 



