144 The Wilderness Hunter 



it; for their brute foes are able to overmatch them 

 on anything like level ground, but are helpless 

 against them among the crags. Almost as soon as 

 I saw them these four started up the mountain, 

 nearly in my direction, while I clambered down and 

 across to meet them. They halted at the foot of a 

 cliff, and I at the top, being unable to see them ; but 

 in another moment they came bounding and canter 

 ing up the sheer rocks, not moving quickly, but 

 traversing the most seemingly impossible places by 

 main strength and sure-footedness. As they broke 

 by me, some thirty yards off, I fired two shots at 

 the rearmost, an old buck, somewhat smaller than 

 the one I had just killed; and he rolled down the 

 mountain dead. Two of the others, a yearling and 

 a kid, showed more alarm than their elders, and ran 

 off at a brisk pace. The remaining one, an old she, 

 went off a hundred yards, and then deliberately 

 stopped and turned round to gaze at us for a couple 

 of minutes! Verily the white goat is the fool-hen 

 among beasts of the chase. 



Having skinned and cut off the heads we walked 

 rapidly onward, slanting down the mountain side, 

 and then over and down the pass of the game trails ; 

 for it was growing late and we wished to get well 

 down among the timber before nightfall. On the 

 way an eagle came soaring overhead, and I shot at 

 it twice without success. Having once killed an 

 eagle on the wing with a rifle, I always have a lurk- 



