2.96 Unexplored Spain 
others greatly reduced their numbers. There yet remain, never- 
theless, rivers in Asturias (such as the Deva and Cares) where 
salmon abound, and where numbers are still caught—chiefly by 
net, though rod-fishing is gradually extending its popularity, 
‘owing to the glorious emotions it excites.” 
A local method deserves a word of description. In the crystal- 
clear waters of N. Spain salmon are regularly captured by 
expert divers. Its exact position having been marked, the diver, 
swimming warily up from behind, slips a running noose over the 
salmon’s head. The noose draws tight as the fish begins to run ; 
an attached line is then hauled upon by a second fisherman on 
the bank. 
The Marquis de Villaviciosa de Asturias writes us :— 
It is a common practice with the fishermen to dive and capture 
salmon in their arms (4 brazo). My grandfather, the Marquis de 
Camposagrado, caught twelve thus in a single morning in the river 
Nalon in Asturias. 
(3) Bear-HunTING IN ASTURIAS 
To the same nobleman (one of the first sportsmen of Spain) 
we are indebted for the following note :-— 
As regards the chase of the bear in Asturias, where I have killed 
four, I may say that it commences in September, at which period the 
bears are in the habit of descending nightly from the higher mountain- 
forests to the lower ground in order to raid the maize-fields in the valleys. 
Expert trackers, sent out at daybreak, spoor the bear right up to which- 
ever covert he may have entered, and from which no further tracks 
emerge beyond. 
The locality at which the animal has laid up being thus ascertained, 
a monterta (mountain-drive) is organised—the beaters being provided 
with crackers, empty tins, hunting-horns, and every sort of ear-splitting 
engine—even the services of the bagpiper’ are requisitioned ! 
Three or four guns are usually required, and are posted along the 
line where the bear is most likely to break—-such as where the forest 
runs out to a point; or where it is narrowed by some projecting spur of 
precipitous rocks; or a deep valley where the covert is flanked by a 
mountain-torrent that restricts and defines the probable line of escape. 
The bear (which is in the habit of attacking and destroying much 
1 Gaitero is the word used. The gaita is a musical instrument which we may translate as 
bagpipes. 
