2 24 Unexplored Spain 



hunters. The cold at night in camp was intense, and our Anda- 

 lucian retainers complained bitterly, although they kept an 

 enormous fire going ; yet during the day the heat had been 

 excessive, and the sun burns terribly at these altitudes. 



The following morning we tried a comprehensive drive encom- 

 passing two gorges composed of sublimely grand rocks. As I 

 look over the edge of the black pinnacle that forms my post the 

 sheer drop below is appalling, and above me tower similar masses 

 in rugged and frowning splendour. But not a goat was seen till 

 quite late in the afternoon, when two females slowly approaching 

 were descried. For a mile we watched them, so deliberate was 

 their progress, till they disappeared through the very "pass" 

 where A. had shot his some five years before. 



September 6. — Our scouts returned last night, having failed 

 to locate ibex on the opposite mountain ; so we made a final 

 eff"ort on the Riscos of Villarejo — again blank. Well ! we have 

 done our best for six days on those terrible rocks, on which we 

 must now turn our backs for the present. 



At the village of Arenas de San Pedro we bade good-bye 

 to all our people ; even their wives (clad in the same short 

 skirts of greens and other brilliant hues we had noticed in '91, 

 for fashions change slowly in the sierra) came down from Guisando 

 to say farewell to the Ingl^ses. Here Ramon brought in the 

 head of Bertie's ibex shot the week before ; Ramon presented me 

 with his powder-horn and bullet-pouch as a keepsake, and Juanito 

 with a mountain-staff. Our visit had marked an epoch in the 

 simple annals of the sierra and of its honest and primitive 

 inhabitants. 



To-day we rejoice to add that, as already fully set forth at 

 pp. 141-142, wild-goats may be counted in troops on the ere whiles 

 ibex-denuded crao;s of Almanzor. 



