AN AWKWARD BRIDGE. 313 



Puddoo said we should find a natural bridge of snow. It 

 was too late, however, when we reached there to go after 

 the burrell that day ; but as nothing was likely to disturb 

 them, and there was then no food for them above, we 

 should have every chance of finding them still on or near 

 the same ground in the morning. As we were pitching the 

 camp, one of the men who had gone to fetch water came 

 and told me he had seen some burrell feeding farther down 

 our side of the river ; so Puddoo and I at once started to 

 look after them. There was one good ram in the flock, 

 which was a small one ; but our attempt at a stalk was a 

 failure, as the wary creatures got wind of us and made off. 



Early next morning we clambered down the steep scarp 

 of frost-rotted earth to the natural bridge which was formed 

 of hard old snow jammed up between huge fragments of 

 rock that had fallen from above, almost across the river, 

 where it rushed through a narrow chasm. It was an 

 awkward place to cross, and after getting over, there was 

 an abominably steep bit to be surmounted, where the 

 ground was smooth and friable, before we could proceed 

 down the valley, along the rocks that overhung the river 

 raging along its narrow bed. Thence we got on pretty 

 easily for a mile or two, keeping a sharp look-out upward 

 before crossing each steep gully we came to, lest an ava- 

 lanche of snow, or loose rocks and stones, which at any 

 moment might be expected, should come down upon us. 

 At last we neared the place where, from the opposite side, 

 we had seen the flock of burrell. We had just rounded 

 a corner, when a lot of ewes, which started up from a 

 ravine just beyond it, went scampering away, and almost 

 immediately after we saw the flock containing the two big 

 rams also moving quickly upward from the very .place 

 where we had at first sighted it, having evidently taken 

 alarm at the flight of the ewes. This was very annoying ; 

 but as the second flock had not actually seen us, there was 

 still a chance of getting a crack at the rams before evening. 



