CHAPTER XXVIII 
AFTER CHAMOIS IN THE ASTURIAS 
PICOS DE EUROPA 
At the chateau of Nuévos, hidden away amidst Cantabrian 
hills, hard by where the “Picos de Europa” form the most 
prominent feature of that 100-mile 
range, we were welcomed by the Conde 
de la Vega de Sella, whom we had 
met the previous year in Norway, and 
his friend Bernaldo de Quirés. Our 
hest was a bachelor and the menage 
curiously mixed; there was a wild 
Mexican-Indian servant, but more 
alarming still, a tame wolf prowled 
free about the house—none too tame 
either, as testified by a half-healed 
wound on his master’s arm. The 
bedrooms in the corridor which we 
occupied had no doors, merely curtains 
hanging across the doorway, and all night long that wolf pattered 
up and down the passage outside. My own feelings will not be 
described—there was an ominous mien in that wolf's eye and 
in those immense jaws. 
Beyond patches of maize and other minute crops grown in 
infinitesimal fields divided by stone walls and surrounded by 
woods of chestnut and hazel, the whole landscape surrounding 
the chateau was composed of towering grey mountains. It was 
from this point that with our kind host we had projected an 
expedition to form acquaintance with chamois, and to see the 
system of a monteria as practised in the Biscayan mountains. 
The month was September. 
bo 
G 
ee 
