[Illustration: The lynx (_Felis pardina_)]
Though comparatively near ‘home,’ Spain is but little known to the mass of English sportsmen. Its game laws are not such as to deter the foreigner from visiting its shores, and its game list is a fairly long and interesting one; but such sport as Spain offers is mostly ‘driving’--a sport exciting enough in itself, but not to be compared with stalking or still hunting. Besides this, sport in Spain is expensive. As for the ibex of the Spanish highlands, a competent authority states that every ibex shot in Spain by our English sportsmen from Gibraltar costs at the lowest computation 100_l._
In principle, if not in practice, the game laws of Spain resemble our own, recognising a vested right of chase in the owner or occupier of the land.
Nominally it is illegal to enter upon any private lands in search of game without a written permission from the owner; but practically the sportsman goes wherever he pleases throughout the length and breadth of this sparsely peopled country, except only in the case of _cotos_ or preserves.
This is an important exception to the big game hunter, for nearly all the regions frequented by red deer, at any rate, are strictly preserved, and wholly forbidden ground to the casual stranger. The snow-clad Alpine regions where the Spanish ibex and chamois are to be found, and a few remote haunts of roe deer and pig among the Sierras, are free to all comers, but the difficulty and expense of arranging drives and of camping-out in these distant regions are very great.
The Government of Spain is unusually civil to aliens, making no special stipulations with regard to their sporting rights. Like everyone else in Spain, the foreigner who wants to shoot must take out a licence to carry a gun (_uso de escopeta_) and to kill game (_cazar_). The cost of this is 25 pesetas. In addition to this, each municipality has power to levy a tax in the form of a licence, giving the holder a right to shoot over all lands belonging to the municipality the sporting rights of which have not already been leased. An Englishman furnished with a letter of introduction from his consul would experience no difficulty in obtaining such a licence.