120 Unexplored Spain 
ahead, it becomes tenfold harder to force the remaining geese to 
the guns. 
Each gun should hold his fire till the main bodies of geese 
are well on wing and seen to be heading in towards the shooting- 
line. The “best possible” chances are thus secured, and not 
for one gun only, but quite possibly for all, as several hundred 
geese pass down the line. A premature shot, on the contrary, 
will ruin the best-planned drive, and bring down merited abuse 
from the rest of the party with scathing contempt from the 
drivers. 
Taking single troops at a time, as many as six or eight 
separate drives may be worked into a long day. Our first drive 
to-day produced three geese, the second was blank, while five 
greylags rewarded the third attempt. In the last instance 
three of the guns received welcome aid from a string of ojos, 
or land-springs, around which grew a fringe of green rushes, 
affording excellent cover. 
By four o'clock we had secured, in five drives, eleven geese 
and a wigeon. We then, on information received, changing our 
plan, rode off to a point which the keeper of that district had 
noted was being used by the geese as a dormidero, or sleeping- 
place; and here, as dusk fell, an hour’s “flighting” added six 
more greylags to that day’s total. 
The above may be put down as a fair average day’s results 
in a dry season. From a dozen to a score of driven geese (and 
occasionally many more) represent, with such game as greylags, 
a degree and a quality of sport that is ill-represented by cold 
numerals. 
There are spots in the marisma where the configuration of 
the shore-line enables the flight of the geese, when disturbed, 
to be foretold with certainty. For geese will not cross dry 
land: their retreat is always to the open waters. In such 
situations excellent results accrue from placing the gun-line at a 
right angle to the expected line of flight, while all the “ beaters,” 
save one or two to flush the fowl, are stationed as “stops” 
between the geese and their objective. On rising, the birds thus 
find themselves confronted by a long line of horsemen who 
intercept their natural retreat, and, in effect, force them back 
towards the land. Should the operation be well executed, the 
landmost gun will probably be the first to fire; while the geese 
