X Chajuois- Hunting 505 



— to topple us into the abyss. Just as we were 

 turning an abrupt angle very gingerly, with our eyes 

 fixed on our slippery path, and longing for an 

 elephant's trunk to try the sound bits from the 

 rotten ones, we suddenly heard a rushing sough, 

 like the falling of a moist snow avalanche, and a 

 cloud passed across the sun. Glancing hastily 

 upwards, I — yes I, in the body at this present, 

 inditing this faithful description of my chase — saw, 

 not a hundred paces from me, an enormous vulture ! 

 Anything so fiercely, so terribly grand as this great 

 bird saw I never before, and can scarcely hope to 

 see again. He was so near that we could distinctly 

 see the glare of his fierce eye, and the hard, bitter 

 grip of his clenched talons. The sweep of his vast 

 wings was enormous,— I dare not guess how broad 

 from tip to tip ; and their rushing noise, as he beat 

 the air in his first laboured strokes, sounded strangely 

 wild and spirit-like in the mountain stillness. A 

 dozen strong strokes, and then a wild swoop round 

 to our right, and away, like a cloud before the blast, 

 till a neighbouring peak hid him from our sight, 

 followed by a wild shout of astonishment from 

 Joseph. I opened not my mouth, or if I did, left 

 it open. 



Nothing ever gave me such a feeling of reality as 

 the sight of this vast vulture so near me. Often and 

 often had I seen them, both in Switzerland and the 

 Tyrol, sailing so high that, although well up the 

 mountain flank myself, I almost doubted whether 



