PERILOUS SITUATION. 
63 
search of wild goats {Cabras h'avas), &c., little antici- 
pating the sort of ground he would have to pass in pur- 
suing them. At first it was found to be quite impossible 
to follow in the footsteps of the adventurous mountaineers, 
who, accustomed to spend days in these wild regions, 
looking for stray goats, acquire great agility, sometimes 
jumping with the utmost from one part to 
another of frightful precipices ; or twisting with eel-like 
dexterity, round overhanging rocks, where the loss of 
self-possession for a moment would ensure destruction. 
The first day was almost lost in vain endeavours to 
approach the animals ; on the second, with great diffi- 
culty, a single but ineffectual shot was obtained. In 
descending the mountain, the party at one time was 
in a situation of great peril. To avoid passing near 
the edge of a very steep and dangerous precipice, our 
countryman had taken a rather circuitous route, where 
the difficulty was apparently less ; unfortunately the sur- 
face over which he was walking, happened to be the 
debris of the surrounding rocks, and just before he had 
reached a point which appeared to be firm ground, the 
mass on all sides began to move, at first slowly, but 
quickly increasing in velocity downwards; the guides 
observed the danger, which in a few moments would 
have ended fatally, and with that ready tact, coolness 
and skill, only acquired by being much inured to such 
occurrences, one of them slipped down to a spot some 
distance below, where a rock afforded a standing place. 
