vii BAD WEATHER 189 



Leaving the men, I went home, as I was wet through, 

 and Arthur appeared about 7.30. He and Celestin 

 had been spying from the south side, and he had spied 

 three bouquetin feeding on the mamelon, close to the 

 precipices to the east of the " Banbox " ; they had a 

 hard run up, and he had got a shot at about I oo yards 

 and wounded the female, but too far back. She had 

 rushed down into the pine wood above the precipices, 

 and he had lost her. They had also spied a very fine 

 solitaire on the " lookout " on the lower cornice of 

 Aronebo. 



Sunday, ^rd April 1881. Snowing hard when we 

 awoke. It was no use waiting, so we tried the wood 

 below the " rocks." Arthur went to the yellow 

 cornice and I to the near post. Very hot clambering 

 up through sleet and snow, encumbered with rifle, 

 lunch, and wraps. Placed myself on the lower ledge 

 in an old bouquetin bed, from which I could see a 

 long way down the hill. On their way up the men 

 had found fresh tracks of a smallish bear in the snow 

 on the path. It is not impossible that we nearly met 

 yesterday afternoon. They saw nothing in the beat. 

 At five o'clock it cleared up and gave promise of a fine 

 day for to-morrow, which promise, however, none of us 

 much believed in. Pierre arrived with letters. 



Monday, ^th April 1881. Raining harder than 

 ever. The only change which I regarded pleasantly 

 from my bed was from rain to sleet and from sleet to 

 snow and back again. Could not stand it, so tried the 

 Sanctuary in hopes of a male, or at any rate, one of 

 the small things that were with Arthur's female, also in 

 hopes of finding her. I went to the chateau and 

 posted myself under a pine, sheltered from any stray 

 stones that might fall from the overhanging precipices 

 above the chateau. It began to snow like mad and 



