At 4000 feet we encamped beneath the pines by a lovely trout-stream.

This was the rendezvous whereat by arrangement we met with our old friends the ibex-hunters of Almanzor--savage perhaps to the eye, yet beyond all doubt radiantly glad to welcome back the foreigners after a lapse of years. No mere greed of dollars inspired that enthusiasm, but solely the bond of a common pa.s.sion that bound us all--that of the hunter. It was, however, but sorry hearing to listen to the reports they told us around the camp-fire. Everywhere the ibex were yearly growing scarcer, dwindling to an inevitable vanishing-point, former haunts already abandoned--or, we should rather say, swept clean. Where but a score of years before, 150 ibex had been counted in a single _monteria_, our friends reckoned that exactly a dozen survived. One remark especially struck us. "There remained," with glee our friends a.s.sured us, "one magnificent old goat, a ram of twelve years, out there on the crags of Almanzor." _ONE!_ To _one_ sole big head had it dwindled?

[Ill.u.s.tration: "MINOR GAME"]

The valley of the Tagus divides two geological periods, and perhaps at one time divided Europe from a retiring Africa. Marked differences distinguish the fauna on either side of the river, and that of the north (with its 10,000 feet alt.i.tude) promised reward worthy the labours of investigation. Not a yard of that great mountain-land of Gredos has been trodden by British foot (save our own) since the days of Wellington.

Hence it was an object with us to secure, not only ibex heads, but specimens of the smaller mammalia that dwell in those heights. Our mountain friends a.s.sembled round the camp-fire--twenty-five in all--each promised to take up this unaccustomed quest and to regard as game every hitherto unconsidered _bicho_ of the hills, whether feathered, furred, or scaled. If ibex failed us, at least a harvest in such minor game we meant to a.s.sure.[34]

Three o'clock saw us astir, bathing in the dark burn while moonlight still streamed through sombre pines. Camp meanwhile was broken up; tents and gear packed on ponies and mules, breakfast finished--we were off, heavenwards. Then, just as the laden pack-animals filed through the burn, there rode up a man--he had ridden all night--and bore a message that changed our exuberant joy to grief--bad news from home.

There could be no doubt--the writer must return at once. Within five minutes I had decided to make for a point on the northern railway beyond the hills and distant some sixty miles as the crow flies. Baggage and battery were abandoned; a handbag with a satchel of provisions and a wine-skin formed my luggage, and, leaving my companions in this wild spot, I set forth in the grey dawn on a barebacked mule devoid of saddle, bridle, or stirrups, and accompanied by two of our hill-bred lads, one riding pillion behind or running alongside in turn.

Where the grey ramparts of the Risco del Fraile and the Casquerazo frown on a rugged earth below I parted with my old pals, they to continue the ibex-hunt, I on my mournful homeward way.

Bee-eaters poised and chattered, brilliant b.u.t.terflies (whose names I forgot to note), abounded as we rode along those fearful edges and boulder-studded steeps. Six hours of this brought us to a rock-poised hamlet of the sierra. The landlord of the _posada_ was also the _Alcalde_ (mayor) of the district, and even then presiding over a meeting of the council (_ayuntamiento_). Amidst dogs, children, fleas, and dirt, along with my two goat-herd friends, we made breakfast.

Thence over the main pa.s.s of Navasomera--no road, not the vestige of a track, and a tremendous ravine stopped us for hours, and for a time threatened to prove impa.s.sable. By patience and recklessness we lowered mule and ourselves down scrub-choked screes, and after some of the roughest work of my life gained a goat-herd's track which led upwards to the pa.s.s. After clearing the reverse slope we traversed for twenty miles a dreary upland (6000 feet) till we struck the head-waters of the Albirche river, where my lads tickled half-a-dozen trout and a _frog_!

Kites beat along the stony hills, where wheatears and stonechats fluttered incessant, with dippers and sandpipers on the burn below.

We halted at a lonely _venta_ (wayside wine-shop), where a.s.sembled goat-herds courteously made room, and pa.s.sed me their wine-skin.

Presently one of them asked whither I went, remarking, "Your Excellency is clearly not of this province." Three or four skinny rabbits hung on the wall, and the landlord, after inquiring what his Excellency would eat, a.s.sured me he had plenty of everything, was yet so strong in his commendation of _rabbit_ that I knew those wretched beasties were the only food in the place. Presently with my two lads, and surrounded by mules, cats, dogs, poultry, wasps, and fleas, we sat down to dine on trout, rabbits-_a-pimiento_, and _chorizo_ (forty horse-power sausage).

I believe my boys also ate the frog!

Two hours after dark we were still dragging along the upland, while the outlines of the jagged cordillera behind had faded in gathering night. I could scarce have sat much longer on that bony saddleless mule when a light was descried far below, and, on learning that we were still twenty miles from our destination, I decided to put up for the night at that little _venta_ of Almenge, sleeping on bare earth alongside my boys, and close by the heels of our own and sundry other mules.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

At breakfast there sat down, besides ourselves and hostess, sundry muleteers, all sympathetic and commiserate since my mission had become known. I was hurrying homewards to distant Inglaterra--so Juanito had explained--because my brother was _poco bueno_--not very well. The hostess looked hard, and said, "Senor, it must be _muy grave_ (very serious), or they would not have telegraphed for the _caballero_ to return."

Many more hours of tedious mule-riding followed ere at last from lowering spurs we could see the end of the hills and the white track winding away till lost to view across the plain below.

Here in the highest growth of trees were grey shrikes (_Lanius meridionalis_), adults and young, besides missel-thrushes, turtle-doves, etc. On the level corn-lands below, which we now traversed for miles, we observed bustards (these, we were told, retired to lower levels in September)--nothing else beyond the usual larks and kestrels common to all Spain.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SCENES IN SIERRA DE GReDOS.

MOREZoN. CUCHILLAR DE NAVaJAS. ALMANZoR.

THE CIRCO DE GReDOS.

LAGUNA DE GReDOS.

A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW--SHOWS THE AMEaL AND CUCHILLAR DEL GUETRE.]

LOOKING SOUTH ACROSS LAGUNA.

HERMANITOS--

CASQUERaZO.]

It was past noon ere the long ride was completed, and we entered the ancient city that boasts bygone glories, splendid temples, and memories of mediaeval magnificence, but which is now ... well, Avila. But one feature of Avila demands pa.s.sing note--its ma.s.sive walls, withstanding the centuries, full forty feet in height by fifteen feet broad. An hour later the Sud-express dashed up whistling into the station, to the genuine alarm of my leather-clad mountain-lads, who recoiled in fear from an unwonted sight. They, noticing that the officials of the train also spoke a foreign tongue (French), asked me if such things (_i.e._ railway trains) were "only for your Excellencies"--meaning for foreigners, _vos-otros_.

At Paris a rea.s.suring telegram filled me with joy indescribable, but in London and at York further messages intensified anxiety. On August 29 I reached home, and on the evening of September 3 doubts were resolved, and the silver cord was loosed.

The Plaza de Almanzor, with its immediate environment, presents a panorama of mountain-scenery unrivalled, not only in the whole cordillera of Gredos, but probably in all Spain--it may be questioned if the world itself contains a more striking landscape than that known as the "Circo de Gredos." Briefly put, a vast central amphitheatre of rock--really four-square (though known as the "Circo") in the depths of which nestle an alpine lake--is enclosed by stupendous rock-walls and precipices of granite; some of these smooth and sheer, others rugged and disintegrated or broken up by snow-filled gorges of intricacies that defy the power of pen to describe. Three of these vast mural ramparts stand almost rectangular, the fourth shoots out obliquely, traversing the abysmal _enclave_ and all but closing the fourth side of its quadrilateral. The rough sketch-map at p. 141 shows the configuration better than written words, while the photos convey, so far as such can, some idea of the scenery.[35]

The actual peak of Almanzor which dominates the whole "Circo," as viewed from the north, culminates in a flattened cone, the summit being split into two huge rock-needles or pinnacles separated by an unfathomed fissure between. Only one of these needles--and that the lower--has yet been scaled. The loftier of the pair, though it only surpa.s.ses its fellow by a few yards in height, is so sheer, its surface so devoid of crevice or hand-hold, that the ascent (without ropes and other appliances) appears quite impracticable.

Will the reader seat himself in imagination at the spot marked (*) on the map. Surveying the scene from this point, the whole opposite horizon is filled by the Altos de Morezon--a jagged and turreted escarpment pierces the sky, while its frowning walls dip down, down in endless precipices to the inky-black waters of the Laguna far below.

Towards the left one's view is interrupted by an extraordinary ma.s.s of upstanding granite, disintegrated and blackened by the ages, known as the Ameal de Pablo--in itself a virgin mountain, as yet untrodden by human foot. This colossus, glittering with snow-striae, surmounts the oblique ridge aforesaid, that of the Cuchillar del Guetre, which traverses two-thirds of the "Circo," leaving but a narrow gap between its own extremity and the opposite heights of Morezon.

Continuing towards the right, there rises to yet loftier alt.i.tudes the black contour of the Risco del Fraile, beloved of ibex; while adjacent on the north-west, but on slightly lower level, uprear from the snow-flecked skyline three more unscaled ma.s.ses--rectangular monoliths like giant landmarks. This trio is distinguished as Los Hermanitos de Gredos, their abruptness of outline almost appalling as set off by an azure background.

Farther to the right (in the angle of the square) two more mountain-ma.s.ses--knife-edged, jagged, and embattled along the crests--frown upon one another across a gorge rent through their very bowels. These two are the Alto del Casquerazo and the Cuchillar de las Navajas, while the interposed abyss--the Portilla de los Machos--cuts clean through the great cordillera, forming a natural gateway between its northern and its southern faces. As the name implies, this gorge is the main route of the ibex from their much-loved Riscos del Fraile to their second chief resort, the Riscos del Frances, which occupy the southern face of the sierra whose snowfields defy even the heats of August.

From our present standpoint the southern wall of the Circo--the Cuchillar de las Navajas--is not visible. This section of the quadrilateral is equally abrupt and intricate, dropping in ma.s.sive bastions towards the level of the lake. Just beyond the Plaza de Almanzor a second deep gorge or "pa.s.s"--the Portilla Bermeja--unites the northern and the southern faces.

Behind where we sit lies yet another panorama of terrible wildness, again dominated by rock-walls of fantastic contour--the valley of Las Cinco Lagunas. But right here our rock-descriptive powers give out--we can only refer to the map.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GRIFFON VULTURE AND NEST]

CHAPTER XXI

SIERRA DE GReDOS (_Continued_)

IBEX-HUNTING

Why try to describe the distress of that morning or the efforts it cost, during fourteen hours, to gain the summits of Gredos? Again and again what we had taken for our destination proved to be some intervening ridge with another desperate gorge beyond. Suffice it that it was an hour after dark ere we finally lifted the cargoes from the dead-beat beasts. Presently the moon arose, and against her pale effulgence towered the gnarled and pinnacled peaks of Almanzor, piercing the very skies--a lovely but to me an appalling scene. Their alt.i.tude is 8800 feet.

Our whole plan and ambitions in this expedition were to find and stalk the ibex--the very undertaking which had proved beyond our powers during two strenuous efforts in former years as readers of _Wild Spain_ already know.

Now in all stalking it must be obvious even to non-technical readers that the first essential is to bring under survey of the binoculars a very considerable extent of game-country every day; but here, in the chaotic jumble of perpendicular or impending precipice or smooth rock-faces inclined at angles that we dare not traverse, any such extensive survey is a sheer impossibility. Alpine climbers or others in the fullest enjoyment of youth and activity might get forward at a reasonable speed. To us, already past that stage, the feat was impossible, _i.e._ by our own sole exertions. That we, of course, knew in advance; but our plan was to supplement our own powers by availing the splendid rock-climbing abilities of our friends, the goat-herds of Almanzor, on whom we relied for at least finding the game in the first instance.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "AT THE APEX OFF ALL THE SPAINS."

(IBEX ON THE PLAZA DE ALMANZoR.)]

Ramon and Isidoro were away by the first glint of dawn, disappearing in opposite directions so as to encompa.s.s both the surrounding rock-ranges and to mark ibex in stalkable positions. We awaited their return in camp, not only with anxiety, but with some impatience, since the temperature had fallen so low that no wraps or blankets served to keep us warm while inactive.

After a fruitless search of four hours, the scouts returned; no better results attended a second morning and a third--nor our impatience.

Clearly the second resource, that of "driving," must now be tried. It was only ten o'clock that third morning, and already the drivers, who had left at dawn so as to reach agreed positions in case of the failure of resource No. 1, would be approaching the fixed points four miles away on the encircling heights, whereat, by signal, they would know whether to proceed with the "drive" or to return by the circuitous route they had gone. Meanwhile we have ourselves to reach the "pa.s.ses" in the heights above, and the scramble and struggle which that ascent involved we must leave readers to imagine. Bertram gets through such work fairly well, but the writer, a generation older, is fain to choose a lower place, reputed a likely "pa.s.s." Here, after waiting an hour, we descried the drivers showing-up at different points of those encircling Riscos de Morezon, climbing like flies down perpendicular faces, disappearing in gorges, and doing all that specialised hunters can. But not an ibex came our way. When we rea.s.sembled, it proved that three goats had been seen, one a ram. Thus ended that day--cruel work amidst lovely though terrible scenery--and never a wild-goat within our sight.

On the morrow our selected positions were to be yet nearer the heavens above than those of yesterday--along the highest skylines of Gredos, between the Plaza de Almanzor and the Ameal. From our camp my own post was pointed out, a niche in that far-away impossible ridge. How long, I asked Ramon, do you imagine it will take me to reach it? Our friends, who, lean and lythe of frame, a specialised race of mountaineers, mock mountain-heights and appreciate too little (though they recognise) our relative weakness, reply, "Two hours." But at that precise moment, while I yet scanned with binoculars the scene of this supreme effort, examining in a species of horror that infinity of piled rock-ma.s.ses, their details cruelly developed in a blazing sunlight, just then, across the field of the gla.s.s soared a single lammergeyer. Now I know that these giant birds-of-prey span some ten feet from wing to wing, and the tiny speck that this one, reduced by distance, appeared on the object-gla.s.s helped me to gauge what lay before us.