Wild Spain Part 11

At length the time arrived to bid farewell to these rock-ramparts of Old Castile, and their primitive simple folk, kindly and honest as the day; Dionysio actually returned to our camp before daylight next morning--a two-league walk--to return a pair of boots left by one of us at his cottage! Each man already seemed an old friend. "Hasta la otra," said Juan Guarro y Guarro as he offered his hand, "y si no, que lo pasen ustedes bien!"--"Till the next time, and, if for ever, fare ye well!"

The conclusions we came to were that both our visits were rather too early (May), and that the most favourable season for ibex-shooting is in July and August: but even then, whether by stalking or driving, the work is hard in the extreme.

[Ill.u.s.tration: IBEX (FEMALE)--RISCOS DE VALEDREJO.]

CHAPTER XIII.

IBEX-SHOOTING IN SPAIN--(CONTINUED).

III.--SIERRA BERMEJA (MEDITERRANEAN).

In the last chapter are described some experiences with ibex in the distant cordilleras of Castile: but we have the wild _cabra montes_ much nearer--indeed within sight of our Andalucian home. The Sierra Nevada is one of their chief abodes, and herds of goats roam the still nearer heights of Ubrique, Bermeja, and the Palmitera. As the circ.u.mstances of the ibex here vary from those already described, we now add some details of campaigns on these Mediterranean ranges.

We pitched our tents one March evening on a narrow flat plateau, barely over 2,000 feet, at a point in the Bermeja range, where our pioneer--we had employed a native _cazador_ to "prospect" for five or six weeks--had localized two or three small herds of ibex. The steep mountain-sides around were clad to their utmost summits with strong brushwood and with scattered patches of pine and a species of fir (_pinsapo_)--admirable-looking ground for pig, but not at all so, according to preconceived ideas, for the wild-goat. It was, therefore, an agreeable surprise when, early next morning, there were descried three ibex, quietly grazing on the bloom of the _abolaga_ brush beyond a deep ravine, and only about 1,000 feet above the camp. These three, while we watched, were joined by another two, when some make-believe "sparring" ensued between a pair of rams: but at this season (March) there was obviously no great development of the combative instinct.

The next spectacle was less welcome. On the height of the ridge, high above us, we descried against the sky-line the crouching figure of a man, stealthily advancing as though in touch of game. This ill-omened apparition, as the sequel proved, was the key-note of this campaign: the _semana santa_ of Easter-tide had commenced, we were forestalled by native _cazadoras_, and a carefully-planned and well-organized exhibition resulted in comparative failure. Nor had the danger of this been entirely unforeseen, but adverse circ.u.mstances had delayed our movements.

[Ill.u.s.tration: IBEX (FEMALE)--BERMEJA.]

Despite our local compet.i.tors, luck at first seemed inclined to be propitious. While going to our positions, along the knife-edged spur that enclosed our glen, an ibex fell to the rifle of one of our party, who had come suddenly on five (four good males) quietly feeding in a pine-clad corrie, and a standing shot, at 70 yards, secured one--unfortunately the only _cabra_; for, their heads being concealed among the scrub, the s.e.x was not distinguished. This female (shot March 26th) was found, on being gralloched, to contain a pair of kids, which would not have seen the light under three weeks. Another female, followed by her _chivata_, was shot on this beat, though eventually lost, by one of our Spanish _cazadores_, Juan Marquez.

The field of our operations was _all_ scrub--strong th.o.r.n.y bushes clothing the steep and rock-strewn slopes, amidst which we subsequently found many "lairs" of the ibex--regular seats, like those of a hare or fox. Hidden in these strongholds, the ibex, our men a.s.serted, would deliberately allow the beaters to pa.s.s them by: but we have strong grounds for the opinion that this only applied to the _females_--all ages or s.e.xes, be it repeated, are alike to a _cazador_--and never to the males, which, always wild and crafty, rely for safety on far bolder tactics and modes of escape.

Pines and fir interspersed the scrub to the very _reales_ or utmost heights of Bermeja--4,800 feet by aneroid: and Palmitera, though the snow lies longer there, is of a trifle less alt.i.tude. Though, on this occasion, our sport was marred and exuberance of spirit tempered by the constant compet.i.tion of local hunters--by those visions of the hated "gente de Enalguacil" scampering like the goats themselves up the rocks before us--yet, at least, we enjoyed, from the crest of Bermeja, a spectacle which is probably without rival in Europe, and the like of which we have not gazed upon in our lives. Looking down from near 5,000 feet alt.i.tude, we had portions of two continents spread out as a map at out feet. The vast expanse of deep blue Mediterranean visible from such elevations is hard to picture--the level sea appears to tower up, regardless of physical laws, among the clouds themselves: yet, far beyond its southern sh.o.r.es, we could look right into the dark continent, across range beyond range of African mountains, terminating only in the glittering snow-peaks of the Atlas, on the verge of Saharan deserts.

Gibraltar looked like a tiny islet in the Straits, midway between Jebel Moosa's cloud-wreathed ma.s.s, and the loftier Spanish sierras beyond Algesiraz. Tangier, Ceuta, and Melilla, on the African sh.o.r.e, were faintly discernible; and, on the Spanish side, the unbroken snows of Nevada, fifty miles away, glistened in the sunshine as though within rifle-shot, with all the swelling _vegas_ of Western Andalucia; while, right beneath us, lay the rich _Ensenada de Marbella_, the fertile fringe that borders the Mediterranean, white with waving fields of sugar-cane, cotton, and carob, prolific of date-palm and fig-tree, of corn, oil, and wine--one of earth's most fruitful gardens.

From our posts, at the head of a dizzy tumble of rocks and screes, no fewer than five distinct mountain-ranges were in sight, one-rising beyond the other, the last and loftiest clad in snow. To and fro in mid-air, far beneath, sailed a superb pair of lammergeyers, their expanded pinions gleaming almost white in the sunlight. These giant birds had their eyry in a series of granite _canchos_ near the apex of the gorge; but, at intervals, also entered a cave in another crag which, we subsequently ascertained, had formed their home in a previous year.

Amongst the birds observed here, which may be mentioned as typical of the Mediterranean sierras, were golden, booted, and Bonelli's eagles, a single griffon-vulture, peregrine and goshawk, a pair of sparrow-hawks, busy carrying sticks, ravens, jays, great spotted woodp.e.c.k.e.r, wrens, crag-martins (_Cotile rupestris_), the usual chats, and a few cushats.

Hawfinches and great t.i.ts were abundant among the pines, and in the early dawn the melodious song of the blue-thrush reminded one of Scandinavian springs and the redwing's note. Another small bird causes recurrent annoyance to the ibex-shooter. With a loud "rat-tat-tat,"

closely resembling the patter of h.o.r.n.y hoofs on rock, its song commences; then follows a curious hissing note, not unlike the pa.s.sing of a heavy body through brushwood--for a moment one hopes that the coveted and long-awaited game at length is coming. No! confound that bird; it's only a redstart!

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XXIII.

Page 161.

IBEX-HUNTING--A SKETCH IN THE SIERRA BERMEJA.]

No ibex, however, appeared here to us expectant. The natives, _tiradores_ of Enalguacil, of Coin and other hamlets of the sierra, sleeping on the open hill, and possessing twice our speed of foot on their native rocks, were always on our front; and in order to get clear of compet.i.tion, we moved our camp across the ridge to the north. This operation involved sending forward at daybreak a dozen men with hatchets to clear a way for the laden mules, some fifty or sixty well-grown pines, with hundreds of lesser growth, perishing before a pa.s.sage was practicable. We encamped on a forest-opening at a spot called the Majada del Alcornoque, alt.i.tude 3,400 feet, the same evening--first having to remove several hundred stones from the camping-ground, for almost each afforded shelter to a scorpion or gigantic centipede.

Here, during the next few days, we had the (to us) singular experience of ibex-driving in thick pine-forest and deep wooded ravines, with generally a strong undergrowth of bushes and scrub--the _beau ideal_ of a roe-deer country, but the last place in the world in which we should have expected wild-goat. The goats were there, nevertheless, for females and young males were seen on different occasions by guns or beaters. In one tremendous clam-shaped gorge, an ibex and a wild pig were both on foot at once! The only ibex the present writer had the luck to see in this part of the sierra--which seemed to be composed almost entirely of ironstone and other mineral ores--was by a purely fortuitous encounter.

On the sudden lifting of a dense cloud-bank which rested on the mountain-side, I descried, right above me, four ibex--including two fair-sized rams--all standing on a projecting rock, in bold relief against the sky, and not above 400 yards away. The intervening ground was rugged--rocks and brushwood with scattered pines--and, except for the first fifty yards, the stalk seemed to offer no great difficulty.

Already I had pa.s.sed the dangerous bit, and had crawled near 200 yards, when, alas! in a moment the wet mist settled down again, and I saw no more of the game.

Curiously, on the fog first lifting, a large eagle sat, all bedraggled and woe-begone, on a rock-point not forty yards from my shelter, his feathers all fluffed out, and a great yellow talon protruding, as it seemed, from the very centre of his chest. Then a faint sun-ray played on his tawny plumage; he shook himself together, and launched out in air to renew his hunt, sweeping downwards close past me--luckily without disturbing the ibex, though I saw them take note of the circ.u.mstance.

To our other misfortunes was now superadded the discomfort of bad weather. Here is an extract from diary:--March 31st.--Gla.s.s fell last night four-tenths to 25' 85", and the morning broke with a whole gale from W., bitterly cold, with driving ma.s.ses of cloud, gradually changing to rain and sleet--a bad prospect.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SOARING VULTURE.]

The rain, fog, and gale continuing, sporting operations were interrupted, and a fine male ibex, shot the night before, was lost, it being no longer possible to follow the trail. We endured a pretty bad time of it, under canvas, in our mountain-perch; but for our poor beaters it was ten-fold worse--sleeping on the bare ground beneath torrential rains, or under such scant shelter of pine-branches as they could rig up.

We had about a score of these mountaineers in our employ--a wild-looking lot, who, when not otherwise engaged, were chiefly _contrabandistas_. Many of these _serranos_ had joined our party purely for the love of sport, and for no pay beyond such frugal fare as our camp might afford--scanty enough some days, though good red wine and cigarettes were never wanting. The previous week a somewhat serious affray, we now heard, had taken place close by. A gang of 100 smugglers convoying thirty horse-loads of tobacco, &c., were attacked at the pa.s.sage of the Guadiarro by a force of fifty carabineers. Many shots were exchanged, the smugglers being armed with Remingtons, with the result that seven men were killed and many others wounded. The whole of the thirty cargoes were eventually captured, but the horses escaped, the smugglers cutting the girth-ropes; nor were any prisoners made. This information was given us by the Colonel of carabineers commanding the district, whom we met a few days later in Estepona.

Here is another reflex of local character--a cutting from a Malaga paper of April 1st, 1891, among the ordinary items of local news:--

"BANDIDO.--The Civil Guard of Malaga encountered on Wednesday, near Coin, the celebrated bandit Mena, who has long held the whole of that district in terror. The individuals of the Civil Guard demanded his surrender, to which summons he replied with the discharge of his weapon.

This brought on a ferocious struggle, resulting in the death of the freebooter, who received two bullet-wounds from his aggressors."

Such tendencies become infectious, and, as a relief to the tedium of forced inactivity, and wet days under canvas--for the flooded _gargantas_ made sport impossible--it occurred to one restless spirit that we might ourselves embark in this popular business of _bandolerismo_. Had we not a score of bold brigands ready at our hand?

And, besides, there was not wanting eminently suitable material for "sequestration"--what a subject for a chapter! But ... well, the opportunity was thrown away, and, the deluge still continuing, in the morning our smuggler-chief, old Marquez, came in to say that the people, like the Israelites of old, wished to depart, each man to his own house--"cada uno a su casa."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FOREST-IBEX--BERMEJA. (Showing narrower sweep of horn.)]

Though we did not succeed in obtaining a really first-rate ibex-head during this campaign in the southern sierras, yet, judging from two _machos_ subsequently secured on an adjacent range (three and five-year-old males respectively), the difference in the form of horn in these forest-haunting goats from those of the Alpine sierras is only trifling. Compared with circ.u.mference, the horns are of lesser length, and hardly, perhaps, branch out so widely; but that may, after all, be only a question of age.

IBEX-STALKING.--It may occur to the sportsman-reader to observe that we have said very little of ibex-_stalking_. The reason is that, as before mentioned, we have little but negative experiences to relate, having met with no success ourselves in that sport. Both in Andalucia and the Castiles we have followed some of the longest and most severe days' work in search of ibex, but without success. The ibex are relatively _very scarce_, scattered spa.r.s.ely over vast areas, and rarely to be seen on the move during daylight. It is, of course, in all stalking a first essential that a great extent of country be brought under survey. This implies covering long distances; and the extreme difficulties of locomotion on the Spanish cordilleras forbid this. We do not speak without a basis of comparative experience, having seen something of mountain-game in various lands. It may be that we lack speed of foot in traversing those rugged rock-peaks--we are far from denying this, let those smile who may. Few will do so who have once attempted to seek out and stalk the wild ibex--or it may be only bad luck. At any rate, our hardest days on Nevada or Gredos have not, so far, been rewarded by a single shot, or even by the sight of an ibex in a position where a stalk might be dreamt of.

IV.--NEVADA AND THE ALPUJARRAS--TEN DAYS IN A SNOW-CAVE.

The grandeur of the Sierra Nevada, with its lofty sky-lines, all white and clean-cut against an azure background, majestic Mulahacen and the Picachos de la Veleta, are familiar objects to most visitors to Southern Spain. The majority, however, are content with the distant view from the palace-fortresses of the Alhambra or the turrets of the Generalife. Few dream of penetrating those alpine solitudes or scaling their peaks, which look so near, yet cost such toil and labour to gain. Yet the labour is repaid, if the traveller has an eye for what is wildest and grandest in nature.

For ourselves, we are not ashamed to admit that these snow-clad sierras possess attractions that transcend in interest even the acc.u.mulated art-treasures and wealth of historic and legendary lore that surround the shattered relics of Moslem rule--of an empire-city where for seven centuries the power and faith of the crescent dominated the south-west of Europe, and which formed the home and the centre of mediaeval chivalry and culture. These subjects and sentiments, moreover, stand in no need of a historian: they have engaged the sympathy of legion pens, many directed by a grace, a power and a knowledge to which we dream not of aspiring. To us Granada has rather been merely a "base of operations"

whence the ibex and lammergeyer might conveniently be studied or pursued.

Of our own experiences amidst the twin heights of Nevada and the Alpujarras we might write: but, in this case, we have preferred to avail ourselves of certain notes for which we are indebted to two good friends and thorough sportsmen, in the hope that the change may be to the reader a pleasing contrast from the _semper ego_ otherwise inevitable.

On a bitterly cold March morning we found ourself, as day slowly broke, traversing the outspurs of the sierra--on the scene of the great earthquake of 1884, evidences of which were plentiful enough among the scattered hill-villages. Already many mule-teams, heavily laden with merchandise from the coast-town of Motril, were wending their laborious way inland. It is worth noting that in front of five or six laden mules it is customary to harness a single donkey. This animal does little work: but always pa.s.ses approaching teams on the proper side, and, moreover, picks out the best parts of the road. This enables the driver to go to sleep, and the plan, we were told, is a good one.

At Lanjaron we breakfasted at the ancient _fonda_ of San Rafael, where the bright and beautifully polished bra.s.s and copper cooking utensils hanging on the walls were a sight to make a careful housewife envious.

We watched our breakfast cooked over the charcoal-fire, and learned a good deal thereby. We were delayed here a whole day by snow-storms.

There is stabling under the _fonda_ for 500 pack-animals, for Lanjaron in its "season" is an important place, frequented by invalids from far and near. Its mineral-springs are reputed efficacious: but the drainage arrangements are villainous in the extreme, and altogether it seemed a village to be avoided. Sad traces of the cholera were everywhere visible, many doors and lintels bearing the ominous sign: it was curious that in so few cases had it been erased.

We left before daybreak, and a few leagues further on the ascent became very steep and abrupt, the hill-crests whither we were bound within view, but wreathed in mist. Only one traveller did we meet in the long climb from Orjiva to Capileira, and he bringing two mule-loads of dead and dying sheep, worried by wolves just outside Capileira the night before. Expecting that the wolves would certainly return, we prepared to wait up that night for them: but were dissuaded, the argument being "that is exactly what they will expect! No, those wolves will probably not come back this winter." But return they did, both that night and several following. The night before we left Capileira on the return journey (a fortnight later), they came in greater numbers than ever and killed over twenty sheep.

Capileira is the highest hamlet in the sierra, and is celebrated for its hams, which are cured in the snow. Here we put up for the night, sleeping as best we could amidst fowls and fleas, after an amusing evening spent around the fire, where one pot cooked for forty people besides ourselves. The cold was intense, streams of fine snow whirling in at pleasure through the crazy shutters: so we were glad to go to bed--indeed I was chased thither by a hungry sow on the prowl, seeking something to eat, apparently in my portmanteau.

Heavy snow-falls that night and all next day prevented our advance: but at an early hour on the following morning we were under way--six of us--on mules, though I would have preferred to walk, the snow being so deep one could not see where the edges of the precipices were. No sooner had I mounted than the mule fell down, while crossing a hill-torrent, and I was glad to find the water no deeper. After climbing steadily upwards all the morning, the last two hours on foot, the snow knee-deep, we at length sighted the cairn on the height to which we were bound.

Before nightfall we had reached the point, but few of the mules accomplished the last few hundred yards. After bravely trying again and again, the poor beasts sank exhausted in the snow, and we had to carry up the impedimenta ourselves in repeated journeys. The deep snow, the tremendous ascent, and impossibility of seeing a foothold made this porterage most laborious: but we had all safely stowed in our cave before sundown.

The overhanging rock, which for the next ten or twelve days was to serve as our abode, we found a ma.s.s of icicles. These we proceeded to clear away, and then by a good fire to melt our ice-enamelled rock-ceiling, fancying that the constant drip on our noses all night might be unpleasant. The alt.i.tude of our ledge above sea-level was about 8,500 feet, and our plateau of rest--our home, so to speak--measured just seven yards by two.

Early next morning we proceeded to erect snow-screens at favourable pa.s.ses, wherein to await the wild-goats as they moved up or down the mountain-side at dawn and dusk respectively, their favourite food being the rye-gra.s.s which the peasants from the villages below contrive to grow in tiny patches--two or three square yards scattered here and there amidst the crags. It is only by rare industry that even so paltry a crop can be s.n.a.t.c.hed at such alt.i.tudes, and during the short period when the snow is absent from the southern aspects. At present it enveloped everything--not a blade of vegetation, nor a mouthful for a wild-goat could be seen.