138 A SPORTSMAN'S EDEN. 



sides of our hill or its neighbours. He might 

 look for goats ; I did not want to see any. 

 With a sigh I sank at his feet the moment he 

 paused, larding the lean earth with a torrent of 

 heavy drops from my brow. Perhaps each pause 

 lasted three minutes, and then at it we went 

 again, as if we were climbing some corkscrew whose 

 end was beyond the clouds. At the third pause 

 Toma's face lit up, and four fingers held aloft 

 gave me the first hint of the presence of a like 

 number of goats still some distance above them. 



By-and-by Toma took me by the arm, and 

 pointed to the very highest ledge of the rocks 

 which crowned our hill, whereon, with his family 

 between him and the approaching danger, lay * a 

 big man-sheep ' fast asleep. Then all fatigue was 

 forgotten, and fear fear lest we should be unable 

 to come within shot took its place. To avoid the 

 she-goats, we were obliged to descend a little and 

 then come up the opposite side, and so over the 

 crest to our quarry. Even with the hill between 

 us we had to walk warilv, and this on those 



/ ' 



perpendicular slopes added greatly to our diffi- 

 culties. All the timber round us (of which there 

 was a good deal) had been burnt in comparatively 

 recent times, and the sharp-pointed pine-boughs 

 barred our path or caught in our clothes and 

 stayed our progress. If we laid a hand on them 



