DEER-STALKING. 167 



bones were broken, and looked, hot and out of 

 breath as I was, with an icy shiver in my very 

 marrow at the awful void below me, when also 

 out of invisible depths arose angry mutterings and 

 deep-mouthed thunderings — the result of displace- 

 ments caused by the concussion of myself and 

 attendant avalanche on the ledge— do I recognise 

 the fact that a very ancient family has just had 

 a narrow escape of total extinction in its direct 

 male line. Turning from these serious reflections 

 to immediate action, I, after sending back a re- 

 assuring holloa, " Alt ret ! " (" all-right "), in reply 

 to kind and anxious inquiries conveyed in stentorian 

 yells from above, commence the Sisyphus business 

 of regaining the altitude from which I had rolled 

 down ; and a long business it is. I stick to the 

 rocks, for I dare not trust myself again on the 

 snow, and it takes me nearly an hour to recover 

 the ground lost in less than half a minute. My 

 natives come three parts of the way down to meet 

 me, and are profuse and energetic in unmistakably 



