CHAPTEE XXVIII 



AFTER CHAMOIS IN THE ASTUKIAS 



PICOS DE EUROPA 



At tlie chateau of Niievos, hidden away amidst Cantabrian 



hills, hard by where the " Picos de Europa " form the most 



prominent feature of that 100-mile 



range, we were welcomed by the Conde 



de la Vega de Sella, whom we had 



met the previous year in Norway, and 



his friend Bernaldo de Quiros. Our 



host was a bachelor and the menage 



curiously mixed ; there was a wild 



Mexican -Indian servant, but more 



alarming still, a tame wolf prowled 



free about the house — none too tame 



either, as testified by a half-healed 



wound on his master's arm. The 



bedrooms in the corridor which we 



occupied had no doors, merely curtains 



hanging across the doorway, and all night long that wolf pattered 



up and down the passage outside. My own feelings will not be 



described — there was an ominous mien in that wolfs eye and 



in those immense jaws. 



Beyond patches of maize and other minute crops grown in 

 infinitesimal fields divided by stone walls and surrounded by 

 woods of chestnut and hazel, the whole landscape surrounding 

 the chateau was composed of towering grey mountains. It was 

 from this point that with our kind host we had projected au 

 expedition to form acquaintance with chamois, and to see the 

 system of a monteria as practised in the Biscayan mountains. 



The month was September. 



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