288 Unexplored Spain 
The lower passes had meanwhile been occupied by the Padre and 
by sundry shepherds armed with primitive-looking guns. 
On recovering some degree of breath and strength, I surveyed 
my surroundings. We were both stationed on the topmost aréte, 
in a nick that broke for 80 or 100 yards the rim of a knife- 
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A CHAMOIS DRIVE—PICOS DE EUROPA 
Diagram illustrative of text. Our positions on aréte marked (1) and (2) ; ‘‘ Cathedral” on right. 
Valley beyond full of driving mist (passing our power to depict). 
edged ridge that separated two stupendous gorges. On my right, 
while facing the beat, and not 30 yards away, the nick was 
terminated by a rock-mass perpendicular and four-square as a 
cathedral tower, that uprose some 100 feet sheer. On the left 
also rose cliffs though not quite so abrupt. The position was 
such that any game attempting to pass the nick must appear 
within 50 or 60 yards—so, in our simplicity, we thought. 
Behind us dipped away the long moraine of loose rocks by 
