THE BIG GAME OF SPAIN 
that. The present writer has no sort of compunction in admitting that such 
work was ever beyond his powers. The nature of the terrain frequented 
both by ibex and chamois (unless previously realized by the reader) can 
never adequately be described in any written words of mine. 
As a trophy, the chamois is a far more easily-won prize than an ibex. 
Not only is it tenfold more abundant, but, being of diurnal habit, the 
chamois may be seen feeding in broad daylight, often in large herds. 
These animals never enter caves or crevices in the crags, as ibex habitually 
do by day, nor is there a vestige of scrub or covert in these regions of rock 
and snow where the chamois live above the clouds. 
The very abundance of the game is a factor adverse to the stalker. For 
such is the terribly broken and interrupted nature of the ground that one’s 
view is always restricted; hence there is a constant danger, while stalking 
chamois which have been espied at a distance, of “jumping” others 
previously unseen though much nearer. Driving is the method usually 
adopted in Spain. Few beaters comparatively are required, while the best 
positions for flankers and stops are clearly indicated by the natural con- 
figuration of the crests and ridges. 
In September, 1912, a Royal monteria was carried out in the Picos de 
Europa. On the first day, with eight guns in the firing-line, and three 
others “ skirmishing,” so to speak, behind, no less than four hundred 
chamois were driven past the guns, and of these eighty-one were killed. 
It was recorded that during lunch a single chamois was seen skipping 
along the beetling crags far overhead, whereupon King Alfonso, dropping 
knife and fork, seized his rifle and brought off a brilliant shot. 
A second day’s drive on the Pena Vieja was almost equally successful 
though the numbers of chamois actually recovered were less. 
The chamois of Cantabria are a smaller race and ruddier in colour than 
those of the Pyrenees, their horns averaging between seven and eight 
inches. Our best Spanish chamois head measures 8| inches, Sir Victor 
Brooke’s best from the Pyrenees being 9 inches. When newly killed, their 
eyes gleam with a strange emerald-green light. 
RED DEER. — The range of the Spanish red deer is restricted to the 
southern half of the Peninsula — that is, roughly speaking, southwards of a 
line drawn horizontally through Madrid. The Cantabrian regions, though 
apparently well suited to their requirements, hold none; nor, for some 
obscure reason, are red deer found in the Sierra Nevada. 
The great Sierra Morena, with its northern extension, the Montes de 
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