THE OLD BUCK. 33? 



the sound proceeded. It was a chamois that had ob- 

 served us ; but none of us could see anything. At 

 last I did : "There !" I whispered eagerly, and pointing 

 straightforwards across the chasm. 



"Beyond the first or the second ravine?" asked 

 Neuner. 



" Beyond the second." 



" I see it !" he exclaimed almost immediately. 



"A doe !" said the younger forester. 



We watched a long while, and the chamois sprang 

 up the rocks, and then stopped to browse : it seemed 

 no longer afraid. Any attempt to reach it was out of 

 the question ; for had it not been so far off, we could 

 only have stalked it from below, and the hollow that 

 separated us was so deep and difficult that, even if 

 practicable, it would have been the work of hours 

 to get down into and up again out of the gully : be- 

 sides there were two such ravines, and it was not 

 possible to avoid them. We watched the doe till she 

 was out of sight, and then turned homewards. 



Here and there on declivities will be found open 

 spaces, without trees or shrubs, and covered with a 

 long grass, the blades of which do not grow erect, 

 but hang downward with the slope. The sun and 

 air dry the stems, and make their surface as slippery 

 as ice, and these places are perhaps the most difficult 

 of any to descend : if you slip, down you go, till a 

 tree or shrub or some inequality of surface stops your 

 descent. There was no danger here ; but when such a 

 grassy slope or /acme ends on the brink of a precipice, 



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