In the Sierra Nevdda 



317 



that had caused us some consternation on our first arrival ! The 

 value of the farm, we were told, is put at £8000 Spanish, repre- 

 senting some £400 as yearly rental. 



Two years before, wolves had become such a pest to the 

 Hocks that strychnine was universally resorted to, with the result 

 that to-day not a wolf is to be seen in the whole sierra. Foxes 

 also perished, and the guarda, Manuel Gallegos, told us that he 

 had thus obtained several wild-cats {(Jatos monte'ses) whose skins 

 fetched 20 pesetas apiece as ladies' furs. The following day we 

 chanced on a dead marten-cat, evidently killed by poison ; and 

 on showino; it to Manuel with the remark that that was not a 

 gato montes, he replied: "No, senor, that is a garduno ; pero 

 lo mismo da" = " it's all the same !" 

 Accuracy in definition is not a strong 

 point with Manuel, nor indeed is it 

 with any of our Spanish friends. 



Martens are the commoner animal 

 in Nevada ; there may, nevertheless, 

 be a few true wild-cats, and there 

 certainly are some lynxes. The four- 

 footed fauna of Nevada is sadly 

 limited. There are neither deer of any 

 kind — red, roe, or fallow — nor wild- 

 boar. Bare rocks afford no covert for 

 these : there is, of course, one compensating equivalent in the ibex. 

 Small game is equally conspicuous by its absence. Local cazadores 

 (each of whom, of course, possesses a decoy-bird — reclamo) 

 enlarge on the abundance of partridge and hares, yet we saw hardly 

 any game whether here on the Monachil, on the Genii, Darro, 

 or at any of the points whereon we have explored the Sierra 

 Nevada. There must, however, be a sprinkling to maintain the 

 golden eagles and peregrines, both of which birds-of-prey we 

 observed. 



There were small trout in the JMonachil ; but in Genii and 

 Dilar (which latter springs from the alpine Laguna de las Yeguas 

 just under the Picacho de la Veleta) trout ran up to a quarter- 

 pound or thereby : the method of capture is dynamite. 



Ibex at this season (^lay) frequent the southern slopes of the 

 main chain — looking down upon the Alpuxarras — a favourite 

 resort beins: the wild rocks of Alcazaba, east of Mulahaceu ; 



GOLDEN EAGLE HUNTING 



