KREUTII. 105 



expected to find game. Passing at the foot of the rocks 

 where the day before my chamois had dropped, Berger 

 went to fetch his knife, which he had forgotten, while 

 I kept on to the left. Here the whole declivity, which 

 was long and steep, was covered with large blocks of 

 stone, lying in all positions, some firmly wedged, and 

 others so loose that without the greatest care your foot 

 slipped clown between them; — nothing more easy than 

 to break an ankle in such a place ! After crossing this 

 sea of stone for nearly three-quarters of an hour, fog 

 and mist came drifting towards me, followed by a thick 

 rain, while the wind increased at every moment ; and by 

 the time I was nearly at the end of my stony passage, 

 it came blowing furiously over the ridge in front. The 

 rain too now poured down in torrents, the wind was 

 bitingly cold, and in a few minutes I was wet to the 

 skin. With such weather all stalking was at an end : so 

 I began to look about for Berger, whom I at last saw 

 far off combating with the blast and with the difficulties 

 of his position. I made a sign to return ; and when we 

 got lower down, the wind, coming up from the other 

 side, rushed by over our heads without much incon- 

 veniencing us. 



" I looked well at the place you fired from yesterday/' 

 said Berger ; "lam quite sure it was more than a hun- 

 dred and thirty yards. When looking upwards from 

 below, one sees how far it is." 



By the time we got to the green hill-side where we 

 first saw the chamois, the rain had ceased, the gloom 

 had disappeared, and air and sky were bright again. 

 Berger proposed that I should take my stand at a cer- 

 tain tree, while he would go down to the path, and en- 

 tering the wood some distance off, pass through it in an 

 oblique direction. 



