FROM SPAIN. 469 
ance would never have led me to imagine that it could hold 
so many vultures; but on the following morning I passed 
through some high valleys and saw green Alps with Alpine 
huts just like those of our own highlands. That very night a 
Bear had eaten a cow close to a hut, and I observed at a 
distance numbers of Griffon Vultures, with a few Egyptian 
Vultures and Ravens, flying round the remnants left by the 
animal after his feast. Concealing myself behind a fence, I 
watched vulture after vulture leave the place and fly across a 
deep valley to the opposite mountain-ridge, where numbers of 
them were cruising about a high cliff, in which they probably 
had their nests; many, however, sailed away down the valley. 
As I wanted to see how soon I could again collect them at 
a carcass, I purchased a sheep at the nearest hut, and led it 
to a rocky elevation visible from afar, and situated on a little 
meadow surrounded by great stones. There I killed it, 
and concealed myself in a shelter rapidly constructed with 
boughs and stones. In a few minutes an Egyptian Vulture 
appeared and at once began its meal; a little later 1 heard 
the rush of heavy wings, and saw a huge shadow gliding 
up over the ground, immediately followed by an old finely 
coloured Griffon Vulture, which settled on a large stone 
near my ambush. I gave it a ball through the breast, and 
as I was proceeding to drag my booty into the hiding- 
place, a second flew past a few yards above me and looked 
at its slain comrade. This bird I also brought down with 
the shot barrel of my combination gun. A torrent of rain 
then fell like a waterspout, and obliged me to return with 
my spoils to the nearest hut, which was within five minutes’ 
walk. Hardly had the sky cleared again and the sun burst 
through the clouds, when I observed a vulture circling over 
the carcass; so I hurried back to the place under cover of the 
stones, and on reaching it looked out from behind them, 
and saw that the sheep and its surroundings were covered 
