32 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



the depth below. The whole figure was motionless ; 

 the eyes only turned from side to side, exploring every 

 bush and prying into each shadowy nook, or running 

 over those green patches among the trees where it was 

 likely a roe might come to graze. I remember to have 

 seen, when a child, a print in the Bible, of Jacob thus 

 leaning on his staff; and I quite well remember too 

 how much the figure pleased me, and how in the atti- 

 tude there was for me a charm which I could not then 

 account for*. And in some strange wise or other this 

 picture was always associated in my mind with a 

 sentence in 'Murray's Exercises-/ "And Jacob wor- 

 shiped his Creator leaning on the top of his staff." 

 The Bible picture and the well-known words recurred 

 at once to my mind ; and here I saw before me what 

 my childish imagination had often dwelt on with in- 

 definable, inexplicable delight. Since those days of 

 childhood the boy had himself leant upon his staff 

 just as Jacob had done ; and thus too had, like him, 

 worshiped his Creator amid the mighty works of His 

 hands. 



We now went to the top of the hill. Below us 

 was the lake, in all the freshness and brightness of 

 early morning, and behind rose the rocky ridge of the 

 Plau Berg, and behind this again other peaks covered 



* Nor am I much better able to do so now. In a figure thus lean- 

 ing there is an air of perfect repose, united however with power and 

 strength; for you see the whole man before you standing at nearly 

 full height; and though the attitude impresses one with rest, it indi- 

 cates at the same time a readiness for action, which takes from it all 

 appearance of slothful ease or of fatigue. 



