174 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



fields of moraine, and at the bottom a glacier, 

 from which sprang a considerable stream, 

 whose course eventually led us almost back to 

 camp, but along the most diabolical road any 

 tired sportsman could imagine. 



On one of the peaks, in a thin birch -tree, 

 I saw what I am almost certain was a scarlet 

 bullfinch {Pyrrhula Erythrina) ; but if so, 

 the figure in Morris's ' British Birds ' is some- 

 what highly-coloured. It was very tame, and 

 though it saw me, seemed only curious to 

 know who I was, and in no degree suspicious 

 of danger. Whilst I was watching it, hoping 

 to hear its call-note, as some additional clue to 

 its identity, I heard a shrill whistle from the 

 other side the ravine, and there, well out of 

 shot, half-way up an incline accessible only to 

 chamois, flies, members of the Alpine Club, 

 and other creatures with prehensile feet, was a 

 chamois at graze. He had not seen us yet, 

 nor I think got our wind, though the fall of 



