168 



WILD SPAIN. 



later), they came in greater numbers than ever and killed 

 over twenty sheep. 



Capileira is the highest hamlet in the sierra, and is 

 celebrated for its hams, which are cured in the snow. Here 

 we put up for the night, sleeping as best we could amidst 

 fowls and fleas, after an amusing evening spent around 

 the fire, where one pot cooked for forty people besides 

 ourselves. The cold was intense, streams of fine snow 

 whirling in at pleasure through the crazy shutters : so we 

 were glad to go to bed — indeed I was chased thither by a 

 hungry sow on the prowl, seeking something to eat, 

 apparently in my portmanteau. 



Heavy snow-falls that night and all next day prevented 

 our advance : but at an early hour on the following 

 morning we were under way — six of us — on mules, though 

 I would have preferred to walk, the snow being so deep 

 one could not see where the edges of the precipices were. 

 No sooner had I mounted than the mule fell down, while 

 crossing a hill-torrent, and I was glad to find the water 

 no deeper. After climbing steadily upwards all the 

 morning, the last two hours on foot, the snow knee-deep, 

 we at length sighted the cairn on the height to which 

 we were bound. Before nightfall we had reached the 

 point, but few of the mules accomplished the last few 

 hundred yards. After bravely trying again and again, the 

 poor beasts sank exhausted in the snow, and we had to 

 carry up the impedimenta ourselves in repeated journeys. 

 The deep snow, the tremendous ascent, and impossibility 

 of seeing a foothold made this porterage most laborious : 

 but we had all safely stowed in our cave before sundown. 



The overhanging rock, which for the next ten or twelve 

 days was to serve as our abode, we found a mass of icicles. 

 These we proceeded to clear away, and then by a good fire 

 to melt our ice-enamelled rock-ceiling, fancying that the 

 constant drip on our noses all night might be unpleasant. 

 The altitude of our ledge above sea-level was about 8,500 

 feet, and our plateau of rest — our home, so to speak — ■ 

 measured just seven yards by two. 



Early next morning we proceeded to erect snow- screens 



