THE WILD GOAT. 175 



Sometimes we had a sheer fall of some hundreds of 

 feet below us, on one side or the other, towards the 

 open forest plains or towards the central basin ; and 

 sometimes we could see the way of a more or less 

 practicable descent through tumbled masses of 

 boulders and forest growth. 



At one spot I had a narrow escape. We had left 

 the top of the ridge, and were making our way along 

 the side, when we came to a sheer precipice. It rose 

 above us in an almost straight unbroken line, and its 

 base was hidden from view underneath us. Where 

 we were it was not, however, more than a few 

 feet wide, and irregularities afforded hand and foot 

 hold. 



W., clinging like a star-fish, worked his way across 

 it in safety, and I followed. I had to reach out with 

 one leg, as far as I could, to the foothold of a crevice, 

 and, thus supported, to lean out until I could seize 

 hold of a bush that grew out of the sheer face of the 

 precipice. Holding on to this, I had to stretch for- 

 ward again to get foothold on a little knob of rock 

 that jutted out a few inches, and thence reach a sapling 

 which grew out of more practicable ground. Holding 

 on to the bush, with two or three hundred feet of 

 sheer fall below me, I was putting my foot on the 

 projecting rock when it gently gave way under my 

 weight. The little knob and part of the rock behind 

 detached itself from the cliff and dropped in silence 

 out of sight, and it was some seconds before we 

 heard the crash in the depths below. All my weight 

 was thrown on the bush, which stood the strain for a 

 moment; but as I turned to make my way back to 



