420 AN AWKWARD BRIDGE. 



had just melted off, and the hard steep ground was glazed 

 over with a slippery coating of ice, which had at times to be 

 chipped for foothold, a glance down towards the hidden depth 

 far below sent a cold creepy thrill through the nerves that 

 was anything but pleasant. 



A few miles below Goting we descried across the valley a 

 flock of twelve burrell, and with the glass I could distinguish 

 two grand old rams in it. They were on a small sloping patch 

 of green grass above the precipitous rocks rising directly from 

 the river, having evidently descended to feed there from the 

 heights above, the upper regions of which were covered with 

 snow, and the steep declivities below, where it had only recently 

 melted off, were, for a long way down, still quite destitute of 

 verdure. There was no means of crossing the river nearer 

 than Goting, where 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 



