254 ENCOUNTER WITH A BEAR. 



cause of the existence of the numerous banditti, is the 

 slavery and extreme poverty of the lower classes, which 

 either drive those people to a desperate life of crime, or 

 causes them to prefer seeking an uncertain subsistence on 

 the highway to spending all their days drudging to no 

 purpose. Be this as it may, it is certain that the bandits 

 have numerous friends in every village to apprize them of 

 chances for robbery. 



But books of travel are too numerous to permit any de 

 tail of a simple journey through Spain. We passed 

 through that splendid variety of scenery for which the 

 peninsula is remarkable, visited some of the most ancient 

 and celebrated cities witnessed a bull-fight at Madrid 

 made two narrow escapes from pursuing banditti and at 

 length reached Burgos, at the foot of the Pyrenees the 

 lofty mountain barrier of Spain. This town has a pic- 

 turesque situation, and contains a splendid cathedral and 

 many handsome residences. At the hotel on the moun- 

 tain side, where we stopped for the night, we were greatly 

 entertained by the stories of a hunter of the Pyrenees, 

 who seemed to have a firm belief that he was of legitimate 

 descent from Nimrod, because he had been very successful 

 as a slayer of common black bears. However, some of 

 his stories were of thrilling interest, even to us universal 

 sportsmen. One of them I will narrate in his own words. 



"Last fall," said the Spaniard, "bears were very nu- 



