IBEX-SHOOTING IN SPAIN. 171 



a word, or disturbing the dreams of his still sleeping 

 employers, picked up an " express " and went forth. Then 

 the loud double report at our very doors — that is, had 

 there been a door — aroused us, only to find .... the 

 spoor of that enormous ram, the spot where he had 

 halted, listening, close above the cave, and the splash of 

 the lead on the rock beyond — eighteen inches too low ! an 

 impossible miss for any one used to the " express." Oh, 

 Esteban, Esteban ! what were our feelings towards you 

 on that fateful morn ! 



Life in a mountain-cave high above the level of 

 perpetual snow — six men huddled together in the narrow 

 space, two English and four Spaniards — has its weird and 

 picturesque, but it has also its harder side. Yet those 

 days and nights, passed amidst majestic scenes and 

 strange wild beasts, have left nothing but pleasant 

 memories, nor have their hardships deterred one of us 

 from repeating the experiment. Probably both these 

 campaigns were too early in the season (March and 

 April). 



The only birds seen in the high sierra were choughs and 

 ravens : ring-ouzels a little lower down. There were 

 plenty of trout, though small, in the hill-burns. On one 

 occasion we witnessed an extraordinary circular rainbow 

 across a deep gorge, with our own figures perfectly 

 reflected in the centre on passing a given point. 



The ice-going abilities of the mountaineers were some- 

 thing marvellous — incredible save to an eye-witness. 

 Across even a north drift, hard and " slape " as steel, and 

 hundreds of yards in extent, these men would steer a 

 sliding, slithering course at top speed, directed towards 

 some single projecting rock. To miss that refuge might 

 mean death : but they did not miss it, ever, in their 

 perilous course, making good a certain amount of forward 

 movement. At that rock they would settle in their minds 

 the next point to be reached, quietly smoking a cigarette 

 meanwhile before making a fresh start. How such per- 

 formances diminish one's own self-esteem ! How weak 

 are our efforts ! Even on the softer southern drifts, what 



