X Chamois -Hunting 529 



particularly if it be a warm afternoon, and I have 

 lunched. But as for the unfortunate gemse, we 

 rejoiced over him exceedingly ; we shook hands 

 over him ; we sat beside him, and on him ; we 

 examined him carefully, minutely, scientifically, from 

 stem to stern. I firmly believe that I could pick 

 him out at this moment from the thousand ghosts 

 that attend the silver-horned Gemsen Konig, if I 

 had but the good luck to fall in with his majesty 

 and his charmed suite. Joseph's ball had struck 

 him high up on the neck, but had not inflicted 

 anything like a severe wound. Had we fired on 

 him from below he would have scaled the cliffs in a 

 moment and been no more seen, at least by us ; 

 but as he knew that the mischief was above him, he 

 dared not ascend, — to descend was impossible ; and 

 so, getting to a certain extent pounded, he gave me 

 the rare chance of a second shot. 



Long we sat and gazed at the chamois ; and at the 

 wild scene before us, — never shall I forget it, — shut 

 in on three sides by steep and frowning cliffs, in 

 front the precipice, and far, far down, the wild rocky 

 valleys, divided by shivered ridges rising higher and 

 higher till they mounted up into the calm pure snow- 

 range set in the frame of the jutting promontories 

 on each side of us, — looking the brighter and the 

 holier from the comparative shade in which we were. 

 Not a sound but the occasional faint ' swish ' of the 

 waterfall that drained from the snow-bed, — not a 

 living thing now but our two selves standing side by 



2 M 



