162 Unexplored Spain 
day’s operation, excepting only that on my immediate front there 
yawned a deep ravine (cafiada) into the full depth of which I 
could not see. 
Already within a few minutes one had become aware, by a 
far-distant shot, and by the echoing note of the bugle faintly 
borne on a gentle northerly breeze, that the beat had begun. At 
dawn that morning the four huntsmen, each with his pack, had 
left the lodge, and are now encircling some seven or eight miles of 
covert on our front, two-thirds of which lay beneath my gaze. 
For five hours I occupied that puesto sitting between 
convenient rocks, and hardly a measurable spell of the five 
hours but I was held alert, either by the 
actual sight of game afoot—far distant, it 
is true—or by the shots and bugle-calls of 
the hunters and the music of their packs 
—all signs of game on the move. 
It is instructive, though rarely possible, 
to watch wild game thus, when danger 
threatens, and to observe the wiles by 
which they seek escape—doubling back on 
their own tracks till nearly face to face 
with the baying podencos, and then, by 
a smart flank-movement, skirting round 
behind the pack, till actually between the 
latter and the following huntsmen; then lying flat, awaiting 
till perchance the latter has gone by! That is our stag’s plan 
—bold and comprehensive— yet it fails when that huntsman, 
biding his time, perceives that his pack have overrun the 
scent and recalls them to make quite sure of that intervening 
bit of bush—poor staggie! Rarely indeed, even in mountain- 
lands, do such chances of watching the whole play (and bye- 
play) occur as those we enjoyed to-day on the Llanos del 
Peco. Shots are apt to be quite difficult, as all bushes and 
many trees are in full leaf (January) and the rayas, or rides cut 
out along the shooting-line, barely twenty yards broad. ‘To-day, 
moreover, the wind shifting from north to east operated greatly 
to our disadvantage—practically, in effect, ruined the plan. 
The first stag that came my way had already touched the 
tainted breeze ere I saw him—being slightly deaf (the effects of 
quinine) I had not heard his approach. Instantly he crossed the 
