248 SHORT STALKS 



instead of taking the usual, and what we believed to be 

 the only pass, he made straight for the face of the precipice 

 itself, and we saw him appear, like a fly on a window-pane, 

 apparently glued to the smooth rocks, along which he 

 passed at a terriljle height to a little ghostly ledge we had 

 not noticed before, high above the chamhre a coucher. 

 Here he lay down, and from below we could only see his 

 head and neck. Francois and Antonio manaocd to tret 

 to within one hundred yards of him, but not an inch farther. 

 Seeino- that nothino" could now be done to o-et him down, 

 we determined to send a rifle up to Frangois, and make 

 him finish the })Oor brute. This we did, sending three 

 cartrido-es. The first two had no effect and it was not to 

 1)6 wondered at, for Antonio had t(_) hold Francois by the 

 Ijelt when he fired, and all he could see was his head and 

 neck. At the third shot the boucjuetin swerved violentl}", 

 tliouo;h still untouched, stao-o-ered, sent two or three rocks 



o " CO ' 



whirling as pioneers, in his endeavour to recover his 

 l)alance, lost it, and the next moment was Hying like a 

 little leaf throuo-h the air. It was a sickenino- sio-ht. So 

 nnicli does the precipice overhang, that he appeared to us 

 to be fl}'ing away from its side : six or seven hundred 

 feet he fell before he touched anythino-, and he onlv touched 

 twice, each time boundino- hioh into the air, and revolvino; 

 like a Catherine wheel with the violence of the fall, before 

 he got to the bottom : a fall of at least a thousand or 

 twelve hundred feet. IJoth horns were smashed off close 

 to his head, but are none the worse themselves, and his 

 skull was smashed into atoms." 



A few davs after \\\\ first success, I had another stroke 

 of good fortune. The posts used for a certain drive being 



