278 OUR FIRST CHAMOIS HUNT. 



coiled, and the end was thrown up to Mr. Barrill. Karl 

 now stood up, turned his face to the rock, climbed up to 

 Mr. Barrill's position, then placed one foot upon my 

 friend's thigh and the other on his shoulder, and thus 

 climhed over him to a still higher ledge. My turn came 

 next. Mr. Barrill threw the line up to Karl, and he 

 immediately hauled up the chamois. In this way we 

 climbed up a steep cliff, at least one hundred feet in 

 height. It was, emphatically, awful work. Mr. Barrill 

 suffered from an attack of giddiness, as he dared to 

 glance into the tremendous chasm below; but he re- 

 covered ; and by a straining effort, Karl drew him up to 

 the top of the cliff. I was the last to reach that point, 

 and when I did so, I sank, exhausted, upon the snow 

 But we were all safe the chamois included. 



As soon as we had recovered a little, we stumbled back 

 among the sloppy snow, and the half-concealed rocks, till 

 we reached the ravine up which we had scrambled in the 

 morning. But we decided to return by the way of the 

 glacier and the ice stream which we had also passed in 

 the morning, and on reaching the crystal stream we 

 revelled in long draughts of cold clean water. Our labor 

 was now nearly finished. We quickly travered two or 

 three small snow-fields, and after a little trouble in 

 hauling ourselves, and the chamois, up and down the 

 ridge that separated them, we reached a smooth declivity 



