52 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



shining brightly, the air felt fresh and invigorating 

 throughout the day. We kept along the side of the 

 mountain, climbing in and out of numerous ravines 

 and corries, and always examining the ground before 

 us as carefully as possible from every coign of vantage. 

 We had proceeded in this manner for about four 

 hours without seeing anything, when, after peering 

 over the top of a ridge for some time, and carefully 

 examining the ground before us, without having been 

 able to make out anything, we rose to our feet to 

 move forwards. We immediately disturbed a little 

 flock of eight nanny-goats and kids, which had been 

 lying all the time but quite invisible to us 

 amongst some bushes at the base of a cliff not more 

 than two hundred yards away from us. As soon as 

 they moved we saw them, of course, but as they crept 

 away amongst the bushes, only revealing to view an 

 occasional patch of brown, it was impossible to tell 

 whether or no there was a ram amongst them. When 

 they had gained a distance of some three hundred 

 yards, however, they sprang up a wall of rock, and 

 thinking, I suppose, that they were out of range, stood 

 looking back towards the ridge where they had seen 

 us, and where we were still sitting. As one after 

 another the sure-footed little animals sprang up the 

 bare face of the rock, to which their reddish-brown 

 coats assimilated almost exactly in colour, I had a good 

 look at them with my field-glasses, and saw that there 

 was not even a small ram amongst them. Had there 



