180 FOREST CREATURES. 



the so called " rothen Wand,^' in order to get possession 

 of the eaglet. I put an end to the debate by at once 

 starting with him for the spot, in order to reconnoitre, 

 and, having seen all with my own eyes, to make my 

 arrangements. The whole "Wand," or wall of rock, 

 may be about four or five hundred feet in height, and 

 above the recess where the eyrie was built, projects a 

 distance of at least twenty-five feet. The face of this 

 rock was about six hundred paces broad. Nearly half 

 way up this precipice there is a path * which the cha- 

 mois take in passing to and fro, two or three feet broad, 

 where a very good climber and expert mountaineer might 

 get along pretty easily. To approach nearer than this 

 to the eyrie is beyond all human possibility. Below it, 

 and growing on this very path, was a sole small fir, and 

 above grew a bushy red yew, which I resolved to make use 

 of as a hiding-place whence to shoot the old birds, before 

 attempting to reach the eyrie from the little fir below. 

 The steward, Weber by name, and myself now fetched 

 with much difficulty a quantity of fir and pine branches 

 and built up a sort of bower, from which place of con- 

 cealment I hoped to get a shot at the parent birds. On 

 the face of the same rock is a second eyrie, where, since 



* Thougli the word "path" is here used, it must not be understood 

 according to our usual acceptation. Slight projections of a few inches 

 in breadth form a " path " for chamois, broken and rugged, and seem- 

 ingly impassable. — C. B. 



