202 FOREST CREATURES. 



was SO difficult to hit upon a plan that offered a chance 

 of success, that the Count and two jagers were eight days 

 examining and searching before it could be decided 

 where it was possible to make an attempt. They ob- 

 served, as well as the overhanging rock would permit, 

 that some distance down the precipice was such a ledge, 

 where a man could find a footing. This was fifty feet 

 from the top of the rock. Rooted in the crevice of a 

 rock lower down was a fir tree, which shot up its 

 branches thither. Having fastened a rope, knotted at 

 intervals, to the top of the precipice, the Count let him- 

 self down over its side ; sometimes steadying himself 

 with his feet, but otherwise swinging in the air. Hav- 

 ing reached the small ledge, where he found but just 

 room enough for both feet, he saw that the only means 

 of coming nearer the eyrie, would be to descend the tree, 

 whose branches rose past his present standing place, 

 and thus get thirty or forty feet lower down the preci- 

 pice. Having thus far decided on his plan he climbed 

 up his rope, and the next day returned with a hatchet 

 and his gun to the same spot. Descending by the rope 

 and having fastened it to the tree lest it should swing 

 beyond his reach and thus prevent his return, he hewed 

 aAvay some branches and reached the narrow ledge 

 where the fir had fixed its roots. From here there was 

 no possibility of going farther except by fastening 

 another rope to the trunk of this tree, and letting him- 



