DANGEROUS EXPERIMENTS. 73 



me until I nearly had cause to repent having allowed him 

 to attempt it. Climbing cautiously below the ledge, he 

 seized the little creature by one of its hind legs. In its 

 struggles to free itself it toppled off the ledge, the lad still 

 holding on to it with one hand, whilst with the other he 

 gripped the ledge above him. At last, in order to save 

 I himself from falling, Kurbeer was obliged to let go, when 

 the animal went whirling down among the crags. Had he 

 lost his balance or his footing in the struggle ... I don't 

 like recalling the feelings of those few anxious moments to 

 my memory. 



Eather would I describe my sensations during a somewhat 

 similar episode, when, from being the principal actor myself, 

 they were less poignant than when beholding another in 

 imminent jeopardy without the possibility of helping him, 

 and for which I felt myself to blame. I had wounded a 

 gooral, and it had betaken itself to a steep bare slope, off 

 which the dry grass had been recently burnt, where it lay 

 down in a dying state on a shelving slab of rock. Not 

 wishing to disturb the ground by unnecessarily firing another 

 shot, I proceeded to secure the animal if possible by creep- 

 ing up behind it, and laying hold of one of its hind legs, 

 which I could see was hanging helplessly over the edge of 

 the rock. No sooner did the animal feel itself seized than 

 it kicked itself off the rock with the other hind leg, and 

 fell struggling on to the steep slope below it. I still held 

 on to its legs as we both went sliding head- foremost down 

 the slope. But finding the pace was getting too fast to be 

 pleasant, I let go. Fortunately I soon managed to stop 

 myself by turning flat on my face, and stretching out my 

 arms and legs like a spread-eagle, just as I was uncon- 

 sciously nearing the brink of a nearly perpendicular drop. 

 Over this the gooral went headlong in company with my 

 cap, which had fallen from my head in the struggle. It 

 was afterwards recovered with the gooral, which was found 

 dead at the bottom, I felt truly thankful at having 



