A PRECARIOUS POSITION. 395 



track as far as we could do so without risking being benighted 

 on our return over such awful ground, but not a drop of 

 blood was there to be seen on it. 



"We had recrossed the torrent on our way back, and had 

 reached a narrow and almost perpendicular cleft between a 

 smooth wall of rock and a hard bank of old snow : a very 

 awkward place, which, from being scarcely wider than a man's 

 body, it required considerable exertion both of arms and legs 

 to ascend. Puddoo went first, and reached the top. I fol- 

 lowed next, and had elbowed myself half-way up, when, in 

 endeavouring to clutch at a niche above me, I in some man- 

 ner wrenched my weak shoulder, and instantly felt I had dis- 

 located it. Calling out for assistance, I fortunately managed 

 to support myself with the one arm and my knees until Ganna 

 reached me from below, and Puddoo, who had divested him- 

 self of his shoes, had climbed down from above to extricate 

 me from my unpleasant and somewhat critical position. On 

 reaching a spot where there was space enough to lie down, 

 with Puddoo's assistance the joint was soon replaced for, 

 since my first accident of a similar nature on the Pir Pun- 

 chal, the experience of several repetitions of it had taught 

 me how to act in such an emergency, and consequently I 

 thought little of it. My companions gravely shook their 

 heads, and I overheard them making sundry mysterious 

 allusions to the evil reputation of the glen. A wild and 

 eerie-looking spot this certainly was, with its frowning preci- 

 pices, beetling crags, and tall black pines. As the shades of 

 night closed down on our gloomy surroundings, the big owls 

 began their dismal hootings from the dark echoing pine -wood 

 across the torrent, as if deriding our futile attempt on the 

 charmed life of that black old tahr. 



During the night I was suddenly startled from a restless 

 and rather feverish sleep the natural consequence of my 

 little mishap by the sound of an avalanche of rocks and 

 stones that came rattling down a steep gully some twenty 



