192 CAMP-FIRES OF A NATURALIST. 



for they could not tell how soon another mass might 

 come down, nor did they know until morning that 

 their horses had escaped. 



The continued rain and snow and the falling 

 rocks convinced Dyche that he had better finish his 

 hunt as soon as possible and get away. He had 

 two fine skeletons and four skins, and the natu- 

 ralist would have been satisfied with these alone, for 

 he had as many as were possessed by all the museums 

 of the world ; but he felt that he ought to try once 

 more to get specimens while he was so near the 

 fountain-head. Next morning he went over the 

 ground traversed during the first hunt. It had 

 ceased raining and everything was covered with 

 snow. The naturalist wandered along, feeling re- 

 paid for his trouble in the beauty of the mountain- 

 tops after the snow-storm. But his meditations on 

 nature were soon diverted. At his feet he saw a 

 goat-track plain and fresh in the snow, and this 

 he followed over the rocks until it seemed to be 

 directed towards a bold crag which jutted out from 

 the side of the mountain. 



The tracks led directly to the jutting crag, and 

 when that was reached Dyche was amazed to find 

 that the animals had gone around the cliff on a ledge 

 which a dog would have been unable to traverse. 

 The little shelf was but a few inches wide. On 

 one side was a sheer descent of hundreds of feet, 

 while the perpendicular wall rose to the clouds on 

 the other. The appearance of the place was such 

 that it seemed possible only for an animal with 

 wings to go around it, yet those goats had gone 



