Unexplored Spain 



35^ 



a chasm riven ri,uht tlirouoli the earth's crust till its depths are 

 invisible from above; and overshadowed by encircling walls of 

 sheer red crags, broken horizontally at intervals, thus forming, 



as it were, tier above tier, and 

 Hanked by a series of bastions 

 and flying buttresses apparently 

 provided to support the vast 

 superstructure above. 



By climbing along the rugged 

 central tier, one overlooks from 

 its apex, as from the reserved 

 seats of a dress-circle, the whole 

 domestic economy of a vulture 

 city in being. Every ledge in 

 that abyss was crowded ; many vultures sat brooding, their 

 heads laid Hat on the rock or tucked under the point of a 

 wing. Elsewhere a single grey-white chick, or a huge white egg, 

 lay in full view on the open ledge, nestled, apparently, on bare 

 earth ; and behind these each niche or cavern had its tenant. 

 The rocks around a nest were often stained blood-red, and one 

 vulture arrived carrying a mass of what appeared carrion in its 

 claws. Another brought a wisp of dry esparto -grass athwart 

 her beak and deposited it in 

 her nest.^ 



While we watched this 

 scene a smart thunderstorm 

 passed over, with the result 

 that shortly afterwards the 

 vultures spread their huge 

 wings to dry, displaying 

 attitudes some of wdiich we 

 endeavour to sketch — see 

 also p. 9. 



The descent into the un- 

 seen depths beneath was rewarded, despite a terrible scramble 

 — part of the w^ay on a rope — by discovering a fairy grotto 

 filled with pink, azure, and opalescent stalactites and stalagmites. 



' Note that the pellets or "castings" thrown up by vultures are chieflj' formed of grass 

 cut up into lengths and compacted with saliva, evidently digestive. We have frequently 

 seen vultures carrying a wisp of grass in their beaks. 



"WING-DRYING" 



