A SPLENDID BEAST. 201 



fairly fled. Xever did mortal man feel less 

 inclined for early rising than I did on 

 September 2, and my legs were so stiff from 

 the work of the previous day that I could 

 almost fancy I heard them creak as I bent 

 them. 



After an hour's climb, we were lying on a 

 knoll above the dell wherein the chamois was 

 feeding;, waitino- until the old buck should 

 have finished his breakfast and composed 

 himself for his mornmg nap. He looked a 

 splendid beast as the light fell on his red- 

 brown sides, wet with the dew he brushed off 

 the tangle of larkspur, through beds of which, 

 briofht with its blue blossoms, he had made 

 his way to the wild thyme on which he was 

 then feeding. 



Unluckily, when the sun began to dry up 

 the dew and make the place too warm for our 

 chamois, he moved off at a dainty trot to a 

 thicket of birch trees, and here probably lay 



