¿Quien realizó tal hazaña?
Verguenza de humillacion,
Mi frente al decirlo baña.
Fue el Ingles ... la rubia Albion
Quedó esta vez sobre España!!
Resumen: luz, embeleso,
Panoramas, maravillas,
Bosques, arroyos, cantuéso ...
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 “pass,” gave no such wonderful view beyond as had been the feature of yesterday’s montería. 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 7¾ kilos (over 17 lbs.).
Towards noon, the sun-heat in the gorge being intense, I had cautiously shifted 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!
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.