BEARS IN THE SNOW 211 



had probably betaken themselves to the snowfields 

 to escape from the mosquitoes, intending- to return to 

 "land" at night. It was with difficulty that I tore 

 myself away from this extraordinary coup d\ei7, and 

 resumed my journey home. On our way numbers 

 of striped grey marmots kept popping into their holes 

 as we passed. A long and dreary march over curious 

 strata like sharp tiles set edgeways in the soil, which 

 cut the rubber soles of my shoes, rolling' stones, and 

 lower down beautiful lieht mosses and dwarf rhodo- 

 dendrons, brought us back to the ponies, where we 

 found the gillie still pale with terror from an adventure 

 he had had during our absence. It will be remem- 

 bered that I had sent him to spy over a ridge in case 

 there were sheep in one of the lateral corries. He 

 had naturally seen none, but had encountered a bear 

 which had actually made for him, and as he had been 

 forbidden to carry a gun, his only resource was his 

 legs. He hati managed to escape down a ravine and 

 mislead Bruin, but he vowed he would never visit the 

 hills aoain without a firearm of some kind. 



o 



We reached camp late at night with a painful feeling 

 of disappointment, for my chances of obtaining a trophy 

 were vanishing fast. Littledale had found two young 

 rams on the northern part of the ground, and only 

 brought in a small head, though the tracks he had 



