60 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



Geroll*, cross your path, which the lightest step will 

 set in motion, and yet you must advance quickly, 

 and pick your way quite noiselessly. I always found 

 the exertion and attention this required fatigued me 

 more than climbing for a longer time when such cau- 

 tion was unnecessary. 



As nothing more was to be seen of the five chamois 

 we had met with on the Steinberg, we sat down and 

 peered into the vast hollow that lay before us. Rising 

 upwards to our left was barren rock, sharp and 

 broken, grey, bare, and weather-beaten : it looked 

 hoary with age. 



Where the rocks ceased to be perpendicular the 

 geroll began, and continued far downwards, till here 

 and there latschen began to show themselves. We 

 sat in silence, examining with strained eyes every 

 inch of ground, and looking down among the stunted 

 bushes, and upwards among the crags, in hopes 

 of seeing a chamois that might be lured forth by 

 the cheering sun. From time to time, as one of us 

 fancied that some spot at a distance looked like the 

 object of his search, suddenly out flew the glass, and 

 the other, full of hope and expectation, with eyes 

 turned from the mountain-side to his comrade's face, 

 would watch his countenance as he looked through 

 the telescope, to learn, before he spoke, if a chamois 



* Geroll. Loose rolling stones on the side of a mountain, like the 

 lava on the sides of a volcano. At every step the whole mass gives 

 way beneath your tread, and slides downwards, carrying you with it. 

 The difficulty therefore of crossing such Geroll without noise may be 

 conceived. 



