Climbing for White Goats 



our way nearly to the top of this talus, 

 we found running along it, under the cliff, 

 a game trail; and we followed this, know- 

 ing that it would take us to some point 

 where the precipice which overhung us 

 could be climbed. The trail worked 

 higher up on the talus, and led us to a 

 break in the cliff, where there were some 

 fissured ledges, which promised an ascent 

 for a few hundred feet at least. Every- 

 where the path showed signs of abun- 

 dant use ; the angles of the rock were 

 worn and rounded by the passing of many 

 hoofs, and no plants grew in the scanty 

 soil in the crevices. The climbing soon 

 became hand-over-hand work ; one man 

 standing on a ledge and holding the rifles, 

 while the other went up six or eight feet 

 and then took the guns from his com- 

 panion, who now in his turn drew himself 

 up over the ledges. As we proceeded, 

 the climbing grew more difficult ; and it 

 was hard to understand how any animal, 

 unprovided with hands or wings, could 

 have ascended. Often the ledges on 

 which our feet rested were only two or 

 three inches wide ; and sometimes there 

 were no ledges, and we worked ourselves 

 up the face of the wall, clinging with 

 tenacious grip to projections hardly large 



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