Mountain Game. 



121 



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 fora 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 onwards, 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 over head, and I shot at it twice without success. 

 Having once killed an eagle on the wing with a rifle, I 

 always have a lurking hope that sometime I may be able 

 to repeat the feat. I revenged myself for the miss by 

 knocking a large blue goshawk out of the top of a blasted 

 spruce, where it was sitting in lazy confidence, its crop 

 stuffed with rabbit and grouse. 



A couple of hours' hard walking brought us down to 

 timber ; just before dusk we reached a favorable camping 

 spot in the forest, beside a brook, with plenty of dead 

 trees for the night-fire. Moreover, the spot fortunately 

 yielded us our supper too, in the shape of a flock of young 

 spruce grouse, of which we shot off the heads of a couple. 

 Immediately afterwards I ought to have procured our 

 breakfast, for a cock of the same kind suddenly flew down 

 nearby ; but it was getting dark, I missed with the first 

 shot, and with the second must have merely creased the 



