182 SIR VICTOR BROOKE CHAP. 



of the salle (Tattente good, always out of shot, and dis- 

 appeared. When Celestin came with Post we examined 

 in all directions, but found that the salle d'attente was 

 impracticable ; there is absolutely, as far as we now 

 know, no way up to it. Night fell, and down we were 

 obliged to go again. The weather continued villainous 

 for the next few days, and we could do nothing, and 

 when it cleared, we felt sure that the desperate wind 

 must have driven the bouquetin from the castle, where 

 we could not see them after careful spying. Accord- 

 ingly we determined to try the Sanctuary again with 

 the dogs. This time Post went to the entrance to the 

 castle, and I posted myself in the big couloir in the 

 centre of the wood. Very soon I heard the dogs, but 

 instead of coming in our direction the cries died away. 

 About two hours afterwards two of the men appeared 

 calling me, so I made across as fast as I could, and 

 found that the dogs had run a female and young one 

 up on to a ledge in the Cotatoire gorge to the east of 

 the Sanctuary, and that Celestin was keeping guard 

 over them. Calling up to Post and telling him to 

 come as fast as he could, I made off with Antoine as 

 hard as I could to Celestin. In about an hour I found him 

 squatting behind a rock guarding a little narrow ledge, 

 about 100 feet up, in the middle of which was an icicle- 

 roofed hole, fronted by a solitary pine bush. Behind 

 this he told me the bouquetin were. I waited for Post, 

 who joined me in about half an hour. The question 

 now was if the bouquetin could get out at both sides 

 of the hole. I resolved this by taking the side which 

 looked the worst and leaving the other to Post. As I 

 got to my place, where I went alone, I found that the 

 ledge opened out greatly, ending at last in a rocky 

 protuberance with desperate steep sides, here and there 

 overhanging. It was about 100 feet high. At the 



