314 Unexplored Spain 



for a snow-scramble, following the dwindling Monachil to its 

 source, where the nascent river trickles in tri})le streamlets down 

 black rock-walls mantled by impending snow-fields. Here snow 

 lay in scattered patches dotted with the resurgent unkillable 

 " pincushion " gorse {Bnphcmruin spinosimi) and a spiny broom 

 that later develops a purple blossom, and separated by intervals 

 where the meltino- mantle had left JMother Earth viscous and in- 



o 



choate, heart-broken at the indignity of eight months in the arctic. 

 Higher up the snow became continuous, but seamed by innumer- 

 able rills, each laughing and dancing as in delight at a new-found 

 existence, or converging to join streams in buoyant exuberance. 



Some leapt forward through 

 frincfino^ margins of emerald 

 moss ; others ploughed sullen 

 ways beneath an overhung 

 snow -brae. But no chirp or 

 sound of bird -life broke the 

 silence, the only living creatures 

 were ants and a bronze -green 

 beetle ! [Pterostichus rutilans, 

 Dej.) — not a sign of those alpine 

 forms we had specially come to 

 seek. 



From 8500 feet the snow 

 stretched upwards unbroken (save where some sheer escarpment 

 protruded), covering in purest white the vast shoulder of the 

 Yeleta. The Picacho itself was to-day hidden amidst swirling- 

 clouds, and only once did we enjoy a momentary glimpse of 

 its great scarped outline. Yet in three short weeks, say by May 

 20, all these leagues of solid snow will have vanished. 



Facing this gorge of the Monachil, the opposite slope is 

 crowned by the conspicuous turreted crags known as the Penones 

 de San Francisco, 84G0 feet. To these L. had climbed, and 

 though we both failed in finding the chief of our special objects 

 (the snow-finch) yet L. had enjoyed a glimpse of another alpine 

 species, new to us, and we decided to revisit the spot on the 

 morrow. 



That morning again broke fine, the precursor of a glorious 

 day. Hardly had we left our quarters than a lammergeyer 

 soared overhead, then, gently closing his giant wings, plunged 



