X Chamois- Hiuiting 537 



the course of the day that we should never see 

 again, with Catchins gyrating round us, ' making a 

 tail ' at the chamois, and welcoming us as old friends. 

 We did not dawdle long over our supper, which con- 

 sisted principally of the rat-like marmot, broiled 

 on the embers, and a draught from the neighbouring 

 torrent, and turned into our hay beds, wet and 

 wearied enough, with our brains in a whirl from 

 the strange excitements of the day, and slept, too 

 done -up to care for tickling straws or feline im- 

 pertinences. 



When I woke in the morning I lay for some 

 time trying to collect my thoughts, half fearing that 

 all was but a dream and that we had still our work 

 before us ; but on scrambling down, the sight of the 

 gemse reassured me, and was an agreeable balm for 

 the intolerable aching I felt from head to heel. 

 Joseph, I must say, groaned quite as much as my- 

 self; and we hobbled about in the dark to find bits 

 of wood for our fire, like a couple of unfortunates 

 just escaped from the rack. The skin of our faces 

 and necks was peeling off, as if we had been washing 

 them in oil of vitriol and using sand-paper for a 

 towel ; but we were used to that, and had been as 

 badly burned many a time before ; but we ached, 

 — ye gods, how we did ache ! It took a long warm- 

 ing and some mutually-administered friction to get 

 us at all in walking-trim. As soon as we became 

 lissom again, having nothing to detain us, and ver}^ 

 little to eat, we wended on our way, one bearing 



