276 IN THE LAND OF THE BOEA. 



me to rock again, and thence easy slopes and 

 rock enabled me to push on. Half an hour later 

 I was in camp, but it was five o'clock, and my 

 wife was in a pretty state of anxiety. The worst 

 of it was that I had only an hour to eat and 

 rest; and after some tea I started off again, 

 accompanied by my better half and a man to bring 

 down the game. This time we kept to the left 

 of the Zeleni Pas, and an hour and a quarter 

 at very creditable lady's pace brought us to the 

 big snowfield, where the dog, who had had the 

 wind and run on, was already barking and tearing 

 at the prostrate quarry. Alas ! it was no buck, 

 but next best to it, a very big old yeld doe, with 

 eight-inch horns. Three-quarters of an hour 

 brought her and us back to camp, and made 

 up my day's work to exactly ten hours. 



The death of my first buck was in every way 

 a simpler matter. Meat being badly wanted in 

 camp, and messengers impossible to get on 

 account of the harvest, I started off one morning 

 with the intention of trying my luck. At the 

 same saddle where I began the previous time the 

 dog put two chamois * out of the beech bushes, 

 one of which gave a long standing shot. I think 

 the bullet touched him, but it was probably only 

 a graze. Anyhow, he went off. I worked straight 

 along, past the Botin, and into a terrible country. 



* Probably the two I made such a mess of my first day. 



