262 IN THE LAND OF THE BOKA. 



me. The wind was always playing me these little 

 tricks in the Velez. Still, I hadn't come all this 

 way for nothing. There was a little ground to 

 windward of me ; and I turned across a furlong of 

 bare and broken rocks to spy a shallow valley 

 beyond. As I lay on the cliff, glass in hand, I 

 thought I heard a movement in the legfohren 

 (Pinns Mughus), which formed the centre of the 

 snowfield before me, but could see nothing. 

 Presently, on turning my eyes once more from 

 the valley, I caught sight of two chamois — a good 

 buck and a smaller one — nearly at the top of the 

 snowfield. The smaller one lay down, but I 

 was not to be deceived by that manoeuvre into 

 believing he was not quite as fully on the watch 

 as his friend. The matter seemed pretty hopeless, 

 but I determined to try the stalk. To the right 

 (i.e. leeward) of the two was a buttress of rock 

 which afforded a good approach, but the real 

 question was the highly improbable one of their 

 remaining quiescent on losing sight of me. The 

 only chance in my favour was the dog — all animals 

 being singularly curious with regard to one ; so I 

 left him and my rucksack to attract their atten- 

 tion, and shambled off in a stooping position 

 across the open. One last glimpse I had — neither 

 had moved — and then the big rock hid us from 

 one another's view. I struck a long snow-slope 

 and went briskly along it ; then followed a ridge 



