X Chamois- Htmting 533 



the line, which, after one or two unsuccessful grabs 

 that nearly toppled me over from my ' bad emi- 

 nence/ I caught, and with his assistance got the 

 gemse up to me and rested it across my knees. 

 Joseph now turned his face to the rock, and getting 

 up to me, placed one of his iron-soled shoes on my 

 thigh and the other on my shoulder, and climbed 

 over and past me. As soon as he was firmly fixed 

 I threw him up the end of the line, and felt much 

 relieved of the weight of the chamois, whose rough 

 hide rubbed lovingly over my face as it passed me, 

 and turning round, and standing up on my ledge, 

 laid hold of Joseph by the ankle, and again climbed 

 up him and past him, to be climbed up and over in 

 my turn. Over and over we had to repeat the same 

 manoeuvre, varied occasionally by our being unable 

 to turn or to sit down from the narrowness of the 

 ledges, and then the strain was terrible. If we had 

 not come sometimes to a broader ledge than usual, 

 which allowed us to lie down and get an easier hold 

 of the line as it dangled like a plummet over the cliff, 

 we, or at least I, could never have reached the top 

 of the cliff with the gemse, and I very much doubt 

 whether either of us would have cared much to have 

 done so without it. What was before me I hardly 

 knew. Imitating as well as I could the happy 

 insouciance of a snail * sliming ' up the side of the 

 Parthenon, I tried to restrict my range of vision to 

 points immediately near me. I never felt giddy in 

 my life ; but I felt that it would be running a 



