314 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



rivulets. You do not see where you are stepping, and 

 thus often plant your foot so as to slip down a bank 

 and let the water fill your shoes brimmingly. This 

 however does not much matter, it is true, for it soon 

 bubbles out again ; but in going up a steep and slip- 

 pery mountain it is fatiguing, hindersome, and even 

 dangerous to find yourself stumbling over unseen ob- 

 structions, or your nailed shoes sliding from under you 

 down a slanting surface of stone. The angle up which 

 you are going being pretty acute, down you come on 

 such occasions on both hands, and, what is far more 

 annoying than having your knees driven into the earth 

 or among the stones, your rifle flies round your shoulder 

 and descends with no little force upon the ground. 

 This always went far to put me in a passion. On such 

 occasions my first thought was my rifle ; and if unable 

 to see, I would feel, if all was in order. 



We went up in a straight line for some time ; at last 

 Neuner said we should soon have better ground. We 

 could now just see black patches, like blots, through 

 the gloom, and soon these grew into distincter outlines, 

 becoming trees and latschen. There was a rude path 

 in the neighbourhood that led to the summit, but how 

 discover the exact spot ? Amid stunted bushes, look- 

 ing one like another, and patches of torn-up rock, and 

 gravel, and stones, it was difficult in the dusk to find 

 the place. 



" Yonder is the dead tree," said Neuner, " and the 

 path is to the right, a little higher up." 



" I think it is nearer the tree than where we are," 



