CAMP OX THE ZENES-SQUALl. 283 



bouquetin, and cliamois abounded on the higher moun- 

 tains. It must be remembered that we never went out of 

 our way to look for game ; of its existence there can be 

 no doubt, and this A^ery glen is a favourite hunting-ground 

 with the inhabitants of Laschketi, the highest village in 

 the valley, who come here in winter on snow-shoes. They 

 form a party, consisting of as many as forty or fifty hunters, 

 surround a large tract of country, and drive the game to- 

 gether. In this way thirty-one bouquetin were killed iu 

 one day in the winter of 1863 64. 



We halted where the valleys met on a large level 

 meadow, of course covered with a crop of tall-stemmed, 

 broad-leaved herbage, on the banks of the eastern branch 

 of the Zenes-Squali. The valley is closed by a rocky 

 cirque, the centre of which is occupied by the Lapuri 

 glacier, terminating abruptly on the edge of a cliff, down 

 which the stream makes its way in a bold leap. After 

 waiting for more than two hours without seeing or hearing 

 anything of the porters, whose figures had been visible on 

 the skyline long after we had reached the bottom of the 

 glen, we reflected that we should be unable to push any 

 further that evening, and that it would be as well to make 

 what preparations we could for our bivouac. A spring of 

 clear Av^ater, which burst out of the stony channel of the 

 Zenes-Squali, served to fix the position of our camp, and 

 we proceeded to cut down the herbage, dig up stones 

 Avith our ice-axes, and level the inequalities of the soil. 

 We finished our Avork, and still no porters arrived ; 

 at last, after we had waited for them four hours, our 

 shouts were answered, and Ave distinguished the train 

 rambling leism-ely along on the opposite bank of the river. 

 We called to them to recross the stream, to do Avhich they 

 were obliged to extemporise a bridge by throAving a fallen 

 log across it. No rain had fallen during the day, and our 



