A SOLITAIRE 119 



to try the neighbourhood of the peak to the north- 

 west, and especially the two valleys below it. It was 

 a very hot morning when I left camp a little before 

 nine. My way lay through thick forest disposed in 

 ridge after ridge, many of them covered with dense 

 young beeches. After less than an hour of this, I 

 struck a wood path at which I had been aiming. 

 This, however, only went a short way in my direc- 

 tion ; so presently I left it, crossed another ridge and 

 a large open glade, and struck yet another path. I 

 followed this till I began to feel that my breakfast 

 had been of the slio^htest, so sat down and discussed 

 my lunch. The post-prandial pipe followed this, and 

 between the puffs I thought I heard a bear roar in 

 the forest in front. Perhaps the wish was father to 

 the thought ; at any rate, I saw no sign of him after- 

 wards, nor have I ever heard one on another occasion 

 except at night. Roar, perhaps, is too fine a name 

 to give the sound, which more resembles that of a 

 cross-cut saw, but only continues a second or two, 

 ending like a deep cough. 



Ten minutes after lunch I had to leave this path 

 too, and now began a most tedious piece of work. 

 A couple of ridges crossed, I had to face a slope 

 where I could only get along by pulling myself up 

 by the young trees. This surmounted, I found myself 

 confronted by sheer cliff, which I turned by bearing 

 to the right. Fifty feet higher I came to a cave 

 which looked like a bear's gaura, and the dog 

 hastened into it. When I reached it I found it 

 thickly carpeted with chamois-droppings. They are 

 fond of such places to sleep in. The old latschenhock 

 who probably used it was, however, nowhere about. 

 To make a long story short, it took me over an hour 



