54 By Mountain, Lake, and Plain 



We moved forward along the edge and then 

 back again, but neither saw nor heard anything of 

 the ibex. We then walked north along the top 

 of the great scarp, but we were always baffled by 

 the same uncompromising formation. " To travel 

 hopefully," said Stephenson, " is a better thing 

 than to arrive." We travelled very hopefully for 

 some time, and nothing could have been pleasanter. 

 At every turn I hoped to look down on the white 

 back of some kingly old ibex basking in the sun 

 with misplaced confidence in the impregnability of 

 his fortress. But it was always the same ; either 

 no view at all, or a smooth face of stone, on which 

 an eagle could barely find footing, going sheer 

 down into fearsome depths. It was rather exas- 

 perating, when one knew there must be big ibex 

 in the recesses of the cliffs. 



The morning wore on, then came lunch. The 

 afternoon was wearing on and things looked 

 bad. We had gone north and had returned 

 along the western edge of the table. Once, in 

 a deep tangi, we had come on ibex, but ladies 

 only, and that was all we had seen, if I except 

 the yesterday's tracks of a panther. Hope had 

 grown dim, and when this moment comes I do 

 not think that even the optimistic Stephenson 

 would deny that the person that "arrives" has 

 the best of it. So we had come back to our 



