48 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



There was still a kind of needle which 

 rose sheer above us, and to the summit of 

 which there could be but one way up or down. 

 Up here the tur had but just climbed, and up 

 this Simon fairly refused to follow him. I 

 make no pretension to great skill as a rock 

 climber, but I could not give up my ibex like 

 this, so I left Simon, and using my hands 

 more than my feet crawled a little higher. 



There comes a point though when the ^^dll 

 to do is useless if the flesh is weak, and beins; 

 utterly unable to make a spring that this 

 three-legged dying goat had made, leaving a 

 great splash of blood on the rock from which 

 he had sprung, I sat down, and half sitting, 

 half clinging, passed as wretched an half hour 

 as need be while the shiftins^ armies of mist 

 swept between myself and my hunter, makmg 

 my way down too difficult to attempt. When 

 they had cleared away and I had got back 

 asrain to Simon, we searched in vain for some 



