X Chamois- Hunting 5 1 1 



On reaching the bottom we found that, as usual, 

 the snow had melted some distance from the rock, 

 leaving a mighty pretty crack to receive us. How- 

 ever, a lucky jump landed us safely, and for a 

 moment erect, on the snow, and then, head over 

 heels, rolling and bumping and kicking, we spun 

 over the slippery surface till we managed to bring 

 ourselves up about fifty yards below where we had 

 started. But, in spite of tumbles, we were in high 

 spirits ; there were no gemse to frighten, and no more 

 tottering avalanches ready to fall on our heads if we 

 as much as ventured to use our pocket-handkerchiefs. 



We toiled up the terribly steep snow -patch 

 merrily enough, not without retracing our path 

 several times in a manner at once undignified and 

 unexpected, — though it certainly was not to be 

 complained of as far as speed went, — and reached 

 at last, utterly blown and sick with exertion, the 

 base of the rock forming the summit of the mountain. 

 Hardly giving ourselves time to recover, we climbed 

 up the last sixty or seventy feet of cliff, and I found 

 myself — first this time, for a wonder ! — on a small 

 platform, the summit of the Wildgrad Kogle. 



The platform was some ten or twelve feet square, 

 and the only approach to it was on the side we had 

 ascended ; on every other the cliff ran down in a 

 sheer wall, how deep I know not, for I never could 

 judge of distances from above. As for describing 

 what we saw from our elevated dining-table, it is 

 clean out of the question. We saw nothing but 



