66 Unexplored Spain 
to give notice of the movements of game within. But in (more 
or less) open country where a view, oneself unseen, can be 
obtained afar, the situation is modified. The following is an 
example :— 
CorraLt Quemapo, February 1, 1909.—The authors occupied 
the two outmost posts on a high sand-ridge which commanded an 
introspect far away into the heart of the covert. Already before 
the distant signal had announced that the converging lines of 
beaters had joined, suddenly an apparition showed up. Some 
300 yards away a low pine-clad ridge traversed the forest horizon, 
and in that moment the shadows beneath became, as by magic, 
illumined by an inspiring spectacle—the tracery of great spreading 
antlers surmounting the sunlit grey face and neck of a glorious 
stag. For twenty seconds the apparition (and we) remained 
statuesque as cast in bronze. Then, with the suddenness and 
silence of a shifting shadow, the deep shade was vacant once 
more. The stag had retired. It boots not to recall those agonies 
of self-reproach that gnawed one’s very being. Suffice it, they 
were undeserved; for five or six minutes later that stag re- 
appeared, leisurely cantering forward. Clearly no specific sign 
or suspicion of danger ahead had struck his mind or dictated 
that retirement. But his course was now, by mere chance and 
uncalculated cunning, 300 yards outside the sphere of your 
humble servants, the authors. That stag was now about to 
offer a chance to gun No. 3, instead of, as originally, to Nos. 
1 and 2. Eagerly we both watched his course, now halting 
on some ridge to reconnoitre, gaze shifting, and ears deflecting 
hither and thither, anon making good another stage towards 
the goal of escape. A long shallow canuto (hollow) concealed 
his bulk from view, but we now saw by the bunchy “show” 
on top that this was a prize of no mean merit. Then came 
the climax. Rising the slope which ended the canuto, in an 
instant the stag stopped, petrified. Straight on in front of 
him, not 100 yards ahead, lay No. 3 gun, and the fatal fact 
had been discovered. It may have been an untimely movement, 
perhaps a glint of sunray on exposed gun-barrel, or merely the 
outline of a cap three inches too high—anyway the ambush had 
been detected, and now the stag swung at right angles and 
sought in giant bounds to pass behind No. 2. It was a long 
