2 20 Unexplored Spain 



the west, always rising till we found ourselves on the summit of 

 another ridge looking down into a mighty gorge and upon the 

 mysterious rock-cradled Cinco Laguuas de Gr^dos. The plains 

 of Castile lay beneath us like a map, towns and villages dis- 

 tinguishable through the glass though not without. Bertram was 

 placed in a "pass," about 100 yards wide, piercing the topmost 

 peaks, myself in a similar 2>ortilla rather lower down. An hour 

 later Dionysio, who had climbed the crag above me, whence he 

 could see into the abyss beneath, signalled as he hung over the 

 edge of his eyrie that something was coming. Then he slid down 

 to my side to tell me that three goats were moving slowly up the 

 gorge. Dion^^sio returned to his ledge, and for half an hour I 

 enjoyed that state of breathless suspense when one expects each 

 moment to be face to face with a coveted trophy. The three 

 goats, I perceived, must pass through \\i\% portilla on one side or 

 the other of the rock behind which I lay expectant. At last 

 there caught my ear the gentle patter of horned hoofs on rocks, 

 but oh ! ... it was succeeded by the bang of a gun. Dionysio 

 had fired from his ledge twenty yards above me. The three ibex 

 had come on to within ten yards of where I. lay, looking, as it 

 were, down a tunnel. The wind had been right enough, but it 

 appeared an erratic puff had elected to blow straight from us to 

 them. They caught it, and in a flash disappeared down the 

 ravine, Dionysio, as he hung from the ledge, giving them a 

 parting shot. That was friend Dionysio's version of the event. 

 What actually occurred, all who are experienced in this wild- 

 hunting will divine without our telling. I ran from my post 

 along the lip of the abyss — luckily there w^as a bit of fairly good 

 going — hoping to get a chance as the game turned upwards again ; 

 for at once, on hearing a shot, the beaters far below joined in a 

 chorus of wild yells to push them upwards. This they succeeded 

 in doing, but the goats passed beyond my range. 1 now saw 

 there were four in all — three females and a handsome ram. 

 Dionysio made a further effort to turn them, which so far 

 succeeded that the ram separated and bounded up the rocks 

 towards the higher pass, where he ran the gauntlet of Bertram 

 within thirty yards. Now the whole stress and burden of a 

 laborious expedition fell upon the youngest shoulders, for B. 

 was barely out of his teens, and more skilled with shot-gun 

 than with ball. The responsibility proved almost too great 



