430 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



desert you in time of need : they have a feeling of ho- 

 nour, which I never met with in a like degree elsewhere ; 

 / went, and that was enough ; they then would be sure 

 not to stay behind." 



" It is the only time you were giddy : I suppose it is 

 the ugliest place you ever were in, is it not ?" 



" Why yes, I cannot remember having been in any 

 more dangerous. But what was so disagreeable in this 

 case, was having to return by the same path : that makes 

 the matter a thousand times worse. In going the first 

 time, if you do feel uncomfortable, you have the conso- 

 lation of knowing that you are leaving the danger be- 

 hind you, and that every step brings you nearer the ac- 

 complishment of your undertaking. Besides, the first 

 time the difficulties are all new ; you are not aware how 

 great they are, till you are in the very midst of them 

 and they are half over ; and, before you have time to get 

 ill at ease, they are nearly passed : but in coming back 

 again the same way, you have a foreknowledge of the 

 danger to be incurred; you remember what you felt 

 when in the difficult situation the first time, and have 

 an unwillingness, a thorough disinclination, to endure 

 the same once more. All is so fresh in your mind, that 

 you hang back when called on to do it over again. And 

 as you proceed, in approaching some ugly place, your 

 thoughts are occupied with it all the while : instead of 

 being calm, you are excited, and fancy makes the diffi- 

 culty greater even than it is. If fear once gets hold of 

 you under such circumstances, you are almost surely 

 lost. It was fear, not giddiness, that overcame me, and 

 made me sit down ; for had I been giddy, I could not 

 have looked, as I did, into the depth below ; but it was 

 a feeling of horror at the place I was in, a shuddering 

 dread that I could not shake off. What I drank saved 



