MY FIRST CHAMOIS 103 



and went back to the place whence I had fired. A 

 glance showed the dead chamois, and another lying 

 on some shale fifty yards from it. Of course I did 

 not shoot ; I could easily have had another after my 

 first shot had I wished. Again my geography failed 

 me ; the cliff is practicable at the angle nearest my 

 camp, but, not knowing this then, I went right back 

 round it again, but struck the snow-slope lower down. 

 It was not a nice place. A ledge of rock, sloping out 

 towards the crevasse it made with the snow, which was 

 a score of feet deep, was so overhung that I could hardly 

 get along it on hands and knees. But, thinking it 

 must be lunch-time, I did go on, pushing gun and stick 

 before me. At the end I could stand upright, so I 

 tossed the dog up the seven- foot bank of frozen snow, 

 cut steps for myself, and followed. A quarter of an 

 hour's cautious descent of the steep snow-slope brought 

 me to rock again, and thence easy slopes and rock en- 

 abled me to push on. Half an hour later I was in 

 camp, but it was five o'clock, and my wife was in 

 a pretty state of anxiety. The worst of it was that 

 I had only an hour to eat and rest ; and after some 

 tea I started off again, accompanied by my better 

 half and a man to bring down the game. This time 

 we kept to the left, and an hour and a quarter at very 

 creditable lady's pace brought us to the big snow-field, 

 where the dog, who had had the wind and run up, 

 was already barking and tearing at the prostrate 

 quarry.^ Alas ! it was no buck, but next best to it, a 

 very big old yeld doe, with eight-inch horns. Three- 

 quarters of an hour brought her and us back to camp, 

 and made up my day's work to exactly ten hours. 



1 This beast was killed with a 20-bore shot-and-ball gun, of Austrian 

 make. Since then, Messrs Westley-Richards have taken to making such, 

 which they call the " Faimeta." 



