Unexplored Spain Part 19

Del Poeta al arma no dieron Las Musas mucha virtud: Cuatro ciervos le salieron ...

Y los cuatro se le fueron Rebosantes de salud!

Suya fue la culpa toda: Con la escopeta homicida a apuntar no se acomoda ...

Si les dispara una oda No escapa ni uno con vida!

Sin duda no plugo a Dios Que del ganado cervuno Fueran las Parcas en pos Total; tiros, treinta y dos Yvenados muertos, uno!!!

Quien realizo tal hazana?

Verguenza de humillacion, Mi frente al decirlo bana.

Fue el Ingles ... la rubia Albion Quedo esta vez sobre Espana!!

Resumen: luz, embeleso, Panoramas, maravillas, Bosques, arroyos, cantueso ...

Lo dice junto todo eso Solo al decir "Mezquitillas."

Y bondad, afecto, agrado, Gracia que ingenio revela, Hospitalidad, cuidado ...

Todo eso esta compendiado Condecir "Juan y Carmela."

The next day's operations precisely reversed those of to-day, the guns being placed along the depths of a valley, while the beaters brought down the whole mountain-slopes above. Thus each post, though it commanded a "pa.s.s," gave no such wonderful view beyond as had been the feature of yesterday's _monteria_. It will, in fact, be obvious that in a big mountain-land no two beats are ever alike nor the conditions equal. Every day presents fresh problems. That is one of the charms.

To-day, several stags and a pig were killed, besides one roe-deer and an enormous wild-cat that scaled 7-3/4 kilos (over 17 lbs.).

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

Towards noon, the sun-heat in the gorge being intense, I had cautiously s.h.i.+fted my post to the banks of a mountain-burnlet that, embowered in oleanders,[30] gurgled hard by. In those glancing streams, while I sat motionless, a pair of water-shrews were also busied with their lunch--dipping and diving, turning over pebbles, and searching each nook and cranny of the crystal pool. Lovely little creatures they were--velvety black with snow-white undersides, which showed conspicuously on either flank; but the curious feature was the silver sheen caused by infinite air-bubbles that still adhered to the fur while they swam beneath the surface. They recalled a similar scene in an elk-forest of distant Norway; but never in Spanish sierras have we noticed water-shrews except on this occasion. While yet watching the water-fairies, another movement caught the corner of one eye; with slow sedate steps, a grey wild-cat was descending the opposite slope. She saw nothing, yet the foresight of the 303 carbine was recusant, it declined to get down into the nick, and a miss resulted. But what a bound the feline gave as an expanding bullet (at 2000 feet a second velocity) shattered the sierra half an inch above her back!

[Ill.u.s.tration: ROARING SEPTEMBER.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "HABET."]

An incident occurred near this point (though in another year) with a stag. Two shots had been fired on the left, when the slightest sound behind and above inspired a prepared glance in that direction--and only just in time, for three seconds later a glorious pair of antlers showed up on the nearest bush-clad height, and the easiest of shots yielded a 35-inch trophy.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The annexed drawing shows a 14-pointer, which was killed here the following year by our host, Sr. Don Juan Calvo de Leon of Mezquitillas.

In mere inches the measurements may be surpa.s.sed by others, but no head that we have seen excels this in extraordinary boldness of curve and symmetry of form. This stag was shot on the Puntales del Peco, January 17, 1908, and in the same beat Sr. Juan Calvo, Junr., secured another fine 14-pointer, as below:--

+-----+-------+-------+------------+--------------+----------------+ | |Points.|Length.|Widest Tips.|Widest Inside.|Circ. above Bez.| +-----+-------+-------+------------+--------------+----------------+ |No. 1| 14 |38-3/4"| 39-1/4" | 33-1/4" | 6-1/4" | |No. 2| 14 |36-1/4"| ... | 25-3/4" | ... | +-----+-------+-------+------------+--------------+----------------+

Less rosy on that occasion was the writer's own luck. My post in Los Puntales was in a narrow neck or "pa.s.s" in the knife-edged ridge of a mountain-spur, the rock-strewn ground, overgrown with cistus shoulder-high, falling sharply away both before and behind. In front I looked into a chasm probably 1500 feet in depth, the hither slope being invisible, so sharp was the drop; the opposite side, however (probably 2000 feet high), lay spread out as it were a perpendicular map. From leagues away beyond its apex the beaters were now approaching. From early in the day great fleecy cloud-ma.s.ses had rolled by, and these gradually grew denser till the whole sierra was enveloped in viewless fog. Hark! some animal is escalading my fortress; one cannot see fifteen yards--tantalizing indeed. Yet so well has the _puesto_ been chosen that presently the intruder gallops almost over my toes--a yearling pig or _lechon_, not worth a bullet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PICKING HIS WAY UP A ROCK STAIRCASE

(A 40-inch head.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Later, during a clearer interval, I descried a stag picking a slow and deliberate course down the opposite escarpment. In the abyss below he was long lost to sight but presently reappeared, coming fairly straight in. Seldom have I felt greater confidence in the alignment than when I then fired. Yet the result was a clean miss. While pressing trigger, another shot rang out half-a-mile beyond and the stag swerved sharply; still I had another barrel, and the second bullet "told" loudly enough as the hart bounced, full-broadside, over the pa.s.s. Then he swerved to take the rising ground beyond and, crossing the skyline, displayed the grandest pair of antlers I have seen alive--the great yard-long horns with their branching tops seemed too big even for that ma.s.sive body.

On examination blood was found at once, and on both sides--that is, the bullet had pa.s.sed right through.

In the fog I had under-estimated the distance and the hit was low and too far back. With two trackers I followed the spoor while daylight served and through places that any words of mine must fail to describe; but from the first the head-keeper had foretold the result: "Eso no se cobra--va lejos"--"that stag you will not recover; he goes far, but wherever he stops, he dies. See here! the dogs have run his spoor all along, but have not yet brought him to bay."

The indications left by the stag on brushwood and rock conveyed to the trackers' practised eyes, as clear as words, the precise position of the wound; and, as foretold, those coveted antlers were lost, to perish uselessly.

The pack of Mezquitillas was on this occasion reinforced by those of the Duke of Medinaceli and of the Marquis of Viana--bringing the total up to seventy hounds. Thus, in Spain, do the Grandees of a big land, when guests at a _monteria_, bring with them their huntsmen, kennelmen, and their packs of hounds--a system that breathes a comforting sense of s.p.a.ce.

Next day being hopelessly wet, I took opportunity of measuring three of the trophies which adorn the hall at Mezquitillas:--

+-------+-------+---------+------------+------------+-------------+ | |Points.| Length. |Widest Tips.|Circ. above | Circ. below | | | | | | Bez. | Corona. | +-------+-------+---------+------------+------------+-------------+ |A | 15 | 38-1/4" | 38-3/4" | 6-1/2" | ... | |B | 14 | 38" | 29-1/2" | 6-1/4" | 7-1/2" | |C | 14 | 37-3/4" | 33-1/2" | ... | ... | |Roebuck| ... | 8-1/2" | 3-1/4" | | | +-------+-------+---------+------------+------------+-------------+

It will be observed that the stag shot a day or two before, and ill.u.s.trated above (p. 167), tops the best of these by half an inch. The somewhat abnormal curve, however, partly explains this.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JULY.]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

We must record yet one more memorable day on this estate of Mezquitillas. This _monteria_ (in January 1910) covered the region known as the Leoncillo. Upwards of twenty big stags pa.s.sed the firing-line, and every gun enjoyed his chance--several more than one. In the result, six stags were killed--three by our host, one by his son. Though carrying 12, 11, 10, and 10 points respectively, none of these four were of exceptional merit, and the best, a 14-pointer, fell to the Duke of Medinaceli.

The clean weight of these, the largest stags, is usually between 11-1/2 and 12 arrobas, or 287 to 300 lbs. English. One exceptionally heavy stag killed by our host's son, Juan Calvo, Junr., and which had received some injury in the _testes_, resulting in a malformation of the horn, weighed no less than 16-1/2 arrobas, or 412 lbs. English.

Full-grown wild-boars at Mezquitillas average about 7 arrobas, or 175 lbs., clean--one specially big boar reached 8 arrobas, or 200 lbs.

Wolves, though abundant, are but rarely shot in _monterias_ for the reasons already given. During the period covered by these notes only two were killed in _monterias_--one by Sr. Calvo, Junr., the other by Colonel Barrera. Wild-pigs breed as a rule in March, and to some extent _gregatim_, or in little colonies, which is supposed to be as a protection against the wolves; the lair _(cama)_ being a regular nest made among thick scrub, and roofed over by the foliage. Lynxes, like wolves, are rarely seen. This year, four (a female, with three full-grown cubs) were held-up by the dogs, and all killed in one thicket.

Mongoose and genets are numerous on these brush-clad hills, and martens _(Mustela foina)_ breed in the crags.

Stags roar from mid-September, chiefly by night. Their summer coat is darker rather than redder than that of winter.

Farther east in Morena, near Fuen-Caliente, already mentioned, very fine heads are also obtained. The same systems prevail, and the following measurements have been given us by the Marquez del Merito, taken from two stags shot at Risquillo in his forests of the Sierra Quintana, season 1906-7.

+-----+---------+---------+----------+-------------+--------------+ | | Length. | Widest | Circ. at | Circ. above | Brow-Antler. | | | | Inside. | Burr. | Bez. | | +-----+---------+---------+----------+-------------+--------------+ |No. 1| 36-3/4" | 35" | 8-3/4" | 5-1/2" | 12" | |No. 2| 40-1/4" | ... | 8-3/4" | 6" | 12" | +-----+---------+---------+----------+-------------+--------------+

No. 1 carried 7 + 7 = 14 points, and weighed 224 lbs. clean.

No. 2 carried 8 + 7 = 15 points, besides several k.n.o.bs.

Both are shown in photos annexed.

In the extreme east of the Sierra Morena another culminating point of excellence appears to be attained--at Valdelagrana and Zamujar in the neighbourhood of Jaen--at least it is from that region that two of the largest examples came that we have yet seen in Spain. Both the magnificent heads below described were carefully measured by ourselves:--

+-----+-------+-------+-------+--------+--------+-----------+-----------+ | |Points.|Length.| Widest| Widest |Circ. at|Circ. above|Circ. below| | | | | Tips. | Inside.| Base. | Bez. | Corona. | +-----+-------+-------+-------+--------+--------+-----------+-----------+ |No. 1| 16 |40-5/8"|40-1/2"| 31-1/2"| 7-1/2" | 5-5/8" | 7-1/4" | |No. 2| 16 |38-3/4"|33-1/2"| 28-1/2"| ... | 5-3/4" | 7-1/8" | +-----+-------+-------+-------+--------+--------+-----------+-----------+

No. 1 was shot at Valdelagrana, Jaen, by Sr. D. Enrique Parlade, has five on each top, all strong points, brow-antler 14-1/4 inches. Both horns precisely equal, 40-5/8 inches.

No. 2 shot at El Zamujar, Jaen, by the Marquez de Alventos, the whole head ma.s.sive and rugged, and all the sixteen points well developed.

The only Spanish stag within our knowledge which exceeds these dimensions was shot at Ballasteros in the Montes de Toledo by Sr. D. I.

L. de Ybarra, the measurements of which, though not taken by ourselves, we accept without reserve as follows:--Length, 41 inches; breadth, 36-1/2 inches; circ.u.mference below corona, 8-1/4 inches. (See photo.)

Since writing the foregoing, a head much exceeding the above records has been obtained at Lugar Nuevo, near Andujar, in the eastern sierra, and which measures no less than 43 inches. Photographs, with measurements taken by Messrs. Rowland Ward (both of this and another good head secured at Fontanarejo), have been sent us by the fortune-favoured sportsman, Mr. J. M. Power of Linares, and will be found subjoined. For convenience of reference we put the whole record in tabular form.