A PERSISTENT HUNTER. 201 



trail was seen and Dyche started to follow it. The 

 bear had picked out a good trail and travelling was 

 easy. While hurrying along the hunter caught sight 

 of a goat standing on a crag above him. It was ap- 

 parently looking directly at him, and Dyche feared 

 that he had been seen. Working his way out of 

 sight he tried to get above the goat. He climbed to 

 within a few hundred yards of the top of the moun- 

 tain and there found that farther progress was effect- 

 ually barred. Retracing his steps, he finally found 

 a way up and reached the top. With feet and legs 

 soaking wet from the damp snow, he found him- 

 self on the crag where the goat had been stand- 

 ing, but the animal was nowhere in sight. The 

 naturalist sat down to rest and eat his lunch, and 

 while doing this he noticed the goat standing on 

 the point of a crag below him. Working care- 

 fully, he began to descend. A point about two 

 hundred yards above the animal was reached, and 

 then a careful stalk was begun to get closer, for the 

 snow was falling too heavily to risk a shot at that 

 distance. Crawling down to within one hundred 

 and twenty-five yards, a shot was directed down at 

 a point between the goat's shoulders. It did not 

 move, and Dyche feared that his shot had been a 

 clean miss. Hastily slipping another cartridge in 

 the barrel, he was just about to fire when he 

 noticed a red stream running down the shoulder. 

 The animal began staggering, and fearing that 

 it would pitch forwards over the cliff, the hunter 

 sent another shot at it, trying to break its back, so 

 that it would sink in its tracks. This effort, how- 



