KKINni'lKI! STALKING .333 



tliov cannot produce tliemselvcs, penetrate to tlie secluded 



vulieys. 



Til tlic niicLst of all the squalor there was one I'cature 

 wliicli was then ronimon to most f;ii-ins away from tlic 

 high roads, hut would pcrliaps he rarely observed now, 

 owing to the pertinacious researches of collectors. The 

 only investment that they seemed to know for their 

 savings was in silver plate. This house was piirticularly 

 ricli ; 1 made a l)id for a massive old tankard of (plaint 

 de\iee to the old miser of a grantlfather, and he would 

 have sold it directly if it hadn't been for his relations. 

 ]lc dill run (nit with it on the morning of our departure 

 when he thought no one was looking. He came out 

 wearing only his shirt, which seemed to have been in use 

 as long as the tankard, and the idea that he and ancestors 

 such as he, had been using the latter for all sort of pur- 

 poses for man\' generations, was too much for me and 1 

 rejected it. He did however sell me a silver belt, which, 

 as I afterwards heard, did not belong to him. 



The fii'st night that we were here a bear climbed into 

 a neighbouring fold and kille(l three sheep. The people 

 were in great excitement and a deputation waited upon 

 us to beg us to try to kill him. They proceeded to dri\e 

 somi' miles of the scrub on the side of the valley. The bear 

 could not escape uphill by reason of a steep scarp of rock 

 which extended along the sides of the hill, and there was 

 a gully which could onl\' be crossed at one point. The 

 beast had been c()nstanily seen crossing at this place, and 

 there we wtre ]M»ste(l Ix'hind an ;imbuscade of bushes. 1 

 thought then that itwas a i-rMiiiI cli,nice.,iMd that "Nicholas" 

 ought certainK to come to be killed, but he failed to show 



