138 THE WILDERNESS HUNTER, 



tions. At the other end was a dark gorge, 

 through which a stream foamed. The floor 

 of the basin was bright emerald green, dotted 

 with darker bands where belts of fir trees 

 grew ; and in its middle lay a little lake. 



At last I caught sight of the goat, feeding 

 on a terrace rather over a hundred and twenty- 

 five yards below me. I promptly fired, but 

 overshot. The goat merely gave a few jumps 

 and stopped. My second bullet went through 

 its lungs ; but fearful lest it might escape to 

 some inaccessible cleft or ledge I fired again, 

 missing; and yet again, breaking its back. 

 Down it went, and the next moment began to 

 roll over and over, from ledge to ledge. I 

 greatly feared it would break its horns ; an 

 annoying and oft-recurring incident of white- 

 goat shooting, where the nature of the ground 

 is such that the dead quarry often falls hun- 

 dreds of feet, its body being torn to ribbons 

 by the sharp crags. However in this case 

 the goat speedily lodged unharmed in a little 

 dwarf evergreen. 



Hardly had I fired my fourth shot when my 

 companion again exclaimed, " Look at the 

 white goats ! look at the white goats 1 " 

 Glancing in the direction in which he pointed 

 I speedily made out four more goats stand- 

 ing in a bunch rather less than a hundred 

 yards off, to one side of my former line of 

 fire. They were all looking up at me. They 

 stood on a slab of white rock, with which the 

 color of their fleece harmonized well ; and 

 their black horns, muzzles, eyes, and hoots 

 looked like dark dots on a light-colored sur- 

 iace, so that it took me more than one glance 



