A DAY'S SPORT ON THE KRAMMETS BERG. 187 



had stopped not a couple of inches from the edge of 

 the rock, but thus much further, and I should have 

 gone backwards over it. The depth of the fall was not 

 enough to have killed me, but quite sufficient to break 

 a leg or arm and a rib or two. Slowly and with the 

 utmost caution I lifted my rifle higher behind my 

 back, and, hardly venturing even to do so, drew one 

 knee up and then the other, and again crawled for- 

 wards. 



"Be careful," said Xavier, now for the first time 

 breaking silence, seeing the danger was past ; and he 

 went on. 



He presently called to me not to come further, to 

 stand aside and look out for stones ; and directly after 

 one came leaping down and whizzing through the air. 

 I went toward a wall of rock that rose upright be- 

 side the inclined plane above referred to, and hardly 

 had I reached it when larger fragments of rock came 

 leaping by me into the chasm below : they passed 

 close before my face, and then for the first time I 

 comprehended the terrific force of such missiles, and 

 the havoc they are capable of causing in mountain 

 warfare. They were pieces of rock that Xavier had 

 detached in climbing upwards, and the impetus with 

 which they came whirling by made them bound back 

 with renewed force from every object in their way, 

 and shoot out far beyond the brink before they fell. 

 They then swept on, out of sight, while the clam re- 

 echoed with their rolling ; but deep and oppressive as 

 was the stillness of that yawning place, the silence 



