42 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



inoculated with a notion of its easiness, and allow 

 yourself to commit the folly of starting off alone. But 

 once in the wood the pathway is hardly discernible, 

 and across the mountain-top there is no trace of foot- 

 steps to be seen ; so at last you come to a stand, fully 

 convinced of having done a very foolish thing. For 

 years I nattered myself with the belief of possessing 

 in a superlative degree the organ of locality; and it 

 is only after having more than once missed my way 

 in the forest and on the mountain, and discovered 

 my reckoning to be almost always wrong, that this 

 crotchet of mine has been given up, and the acknow- 

 ledgment forced from me that there is as much chance 

 of my going astray in this physical world, as in the 

 one where we are apt to take our passions for guide- 

 posts. Once, when lagging behind my companions, 

 I lost my way on the mountains ; and after having 

 traversed a space which no one would have credited 

 but for my description of some peculiar features 

 of a remote spot reached while thus wandering, I 

 was at length fortunate enough to see afar off an old 

 human being who, on my forcing him to go with me, 

 put me on the right track. Had I not found that poor 

 weather-beaten creature just then, my bones would 

 now be lying up amongst those heights. 



In the mountains all is on so large a scale, the 

 stranger is constantly deceiving himself as to distance. 

 A trifling change of position, too, makes everything 

 look quite different. In descending from an eminence 

 the forms selected as landmarks are at once lost sight 



