A PROTRACTED CHASE 89 



uses the telescope, give him a line to work 

 on. But after a little practice some natural 

 landmark, such as a well-defined valley, a 

 lonely tree, or some such thing, is instinct- 

 ively marked, and one puts the glass on to 

 it as naturally as one puts food into one's 

 mouth, or throws a gun up at a snipe. 

 After a month or so of this, when the 

 animals have once been found with bin- 

 oculars, the mind seems to keep an involun- 

 tary register of the glass's wanderings, and 

 the telescope strikes them at once. 



Each member of the party ought to have 

 his own telescope with him, and to practise 

 looking through it constantly. Lassoo 

 hardly ever had his eye off his ; when 

 he was doing nothing else he was always 

 peering through it at distant objects, and 

 that was why he was so much more pro- 

 ficient than any of us. 



The ibex were rather late to-day, because 

 of the snow and their yesterday's evening 

 fast, and it was eleven before they settled 

 down on their look-out post very low 



