X Chamois- Hunting 525 



However, as we were fairly above the chamois, our 

 excitement carried us on. I do not think that 

 Joseph swore once. We found afterwards, indeed, 

 to our cost, that in one of his involuntary summersets 

 he had broken the bottle, and narrowly escaped 

 being bayoneted by the fragments ; but we did not 

 know it then, and so scrambled on in contented 

 ignorance, until we reached the spot on the cliffs to 

 our right which he had marked as being above our 

 prey. Here, however, we found that it was impos- 

 sible to get near enough to the edge to look over, as 

 the fresh -fallen snow threatened to part company 

 from the rock and carry us with it on the slightest 

 indiscretion on our part. Crouching down in the 

 snow, we listened for some hint of our friend's 

 whereabouts, and had not waited more than a minute 

 when the faint clatter of a stone far below convinced 

 us that he was on the move. Keeping low, we 

 wallowed alone till we came to where the crest of 

 the cliff, showing a little above the snow, gave us a 

 tolerable shelter ; carefully crawling to the edge we 

 peeped over and saw, as we expected, that the 

 genise had shifted his quarters, and, as luck would 

 have it, was standing on the snow-bed half-way up 

 the cliff immediately below us. 



Trembling, partly with excitement and partly 

 from the under-waistcoat of half-melted snow we had 

 unconsciously assumed in our serpentine wrigglings, 

 we lay and watched the graceful animal below us. 

 He evidently had a presentiment that there was 



