436 



WILD SPAIN. 



put up early in the morning, it was night ere he was 

 secured. My first shot, a long one, struck him heavily, 

 but he ran for hours before the dogs. We took to our 

 horses in pursuit, but thrice he foiled us — both scent and 

 spoor being obliterated by the rain. Twice, by wide 

 " casts " of a mile or more in circuit, we recovered the lost 

 thread, but the third time not a trace could we discover, 

 and had almost given him up for lost, when he jumped up, 

 a long way ahead, before the dogs. At top-speed we ran 

 him to the deep waters of Martinazo, and when at last we 

 overhauled him, he was making his last gallant fight with 

 the two hounds, which held him at bay, breast-deep, in the 

 moonlight. 



During the long homeward ride on the morrow, we came 

 on the big round " pugs " of a lynx, and after following 

 them a couple of miles to his lair, he, too — a big and 

 handsome male — was added to the bag by a single shot 

 from the express. By nightfall we again reached the 

 outposts of civilization, well content with the results of 

 the campaign — four good stags and a lynx — and the 

 wind-up of the sporting season of 1891-92. 



