428 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



to walk across that fir-tree like a rope- dancer, three thou- 

 sand feet high in the air, was no joke. As it was, that 

 chance piece of rock helped ns over capitally." 



"But the rock, I suppose, rose some height beside 

 you, did it not ? for, if not, it must have been very diffi- 

 cult to make an aid of it in crossing." 



"No," he replied, "the rock only came up just to 

 about the tree. That was the difficulty: we had to 

 stoop down, almost sitting on the ground, and planting 

 one foot firmly on the ledge, to slide the other forward, 

 till we thought we could manage to reach as far as to 

 the point of rock, without losing our balance. We 

 tried first of course, then stretched out one hand further 

 and further, till at last we had reached it. Once in our 

 hand, it was all right. Then the other foot was to be 

 gently advanced close to the first ; and again slided care- 

 fully forwards to the opposite ledge ; and when it was 

 firmly planted there, and we thought we were well ba- 

 lanced, the bit of rock was let go, and the foot still on 

 the middle of the tree was quickly brought up beside 

 the other. Luckily the rock rose just in the centre of 

 the gap ; for if it had been nearer one side or the other 

 we could not have accomplished the passage, as it would 

 then have been impossible to reach and lay hold of the 

 stone, while one foot was still on firm ground." 



" When you came back, how did you lift the chamois 

 over the gap?" I inquired. "You surely did not carry 

 him over ?" 



" No indeed, it was as much as we could do to get 

 over ourselves, without having a dead weight like that 

 at our backs. When we had him so far, we pushed him 

 forwards on the tree, till one of us on the opposite side 

 could lay hold of his fore-legs and pull him over ; but 

 we tied him first to a rock : we dared not trust to our 



