: . OTLi] THE CHAMOIS AT HOME 3 6i) 



"Now there it goes, there it goes, see it, see it!" yelled Jack, 

 "Now it has entered the gulley" — ^" Where"?, interposed my other 

 friend — ^"Why on top — on top next to the icefield, — ^what a jtimp! 

 It comes down like a snowslide. Now it bounces to the opposite 

 side, now it strikes the rock, bounces into space again — turn side- 

 ways — lands upon a ledge some lo inches wide leading through the 

 rockwall, now it comes to its end, jumps straight down about 30 

 feet in another ledge, turns towards the gully, which is now very 

 steep and very narrow almost like a chimney, jimips from against 

 one side-wall of the gully over against the other rushing downward 

 at a tremendous speed — now it has reached the base. 



"There it crosses over to the icefield down in the valley! Do 

 you see it coming over in our direction?" 



I actually could make it out now, thanks to the thin layer of 

 fresh snow that covered the glacier. It looked like a pin point and 

 seemed, as Jack had pointed out, advancing in our direction. It 

 began to take size and shape very rapidly and we soon were able 

 to discern its movements with our imaided eyes. 



Our position from the point of view of an observer, was ideal. 

 We were situated on the opposite side, about 600 feet above the 

 glacier that filled the valley below. 



It now headed directly towards our knoll and if it failed to get 

 our scent, a thing not very unlikely; it was going to pass within 

 200 ft. of us, a fact which I could easily predict owing to the sur- 

 rounding rock formation, which would make it much harder for the 

 animal to go through at any other point. I began to ask myself 

 how long it would take it to climb that knoll, for having used 45 

 minutes myself, I was curious to see how man and chamois would 

 compare. I wondered whether we could do it in as much snow. 



It was a beautiful sight to watch it speed along on this level ice- 

 field. It reminded one ever so much of a race horse, though its 

 movements were more graceful and surely much more elastic. Its 

 head was slightly thrown back, its leaps even and curved and its 

 movement rythmic. It just reached a glacier; a crevasse* would it 

 stop ? would it try to cross it ? We had passed along that same 

 " schrund," some three hours earlier and estimated its width at that 

 point 20 or 30 ft. A schrund is a split in the ice sometimes one hun- 

 dred feet deep. 



The animal took in the situation at a glance and without stopping 

 to consider matters boimced over in one big beautiful curve. A 



