the date on one of them is
A.D. 1400.
Early the following morning we started for the bills, where the chamois
were reported to be numerous. After about three hours' climbing over a
mass of large stones and rocks, the ascent became much more precipitous,
trees and sand taking the place of the rocks. In course of time we
reached a plateau, with an almost perpendicular fall on the one side,
and a horizontal ridge of rock protruding from the mountain side
beneath. Four of the party, which numbered eight guns in all, having
taken up positions on this ridge, the remainder, with a posse of boys,
made a flank movement with the view of taking the chamois in reverse.
The shouting and firing which soon commenced showed us that they were
already driving them towards us from the opposite hills. The wood was
here so thick that occasional glimpses only could be obtained of the
chamois, as they came out into the open, throwing up their heads and
sniffing the air as though to detect the danger which instinct told them
was approaching. Two or three of the graceful little animals blundered
off, hard hit, the old Turk being the only one of the party who
succeeded in killing one outright. The bound which followed the
death-wound caused it to fall down a precipice, at the bottom of which
it was found with its neck dislocated, and both horns broken short off.
If the ascent was difficult, the descent was three-fold more so. The
rocks being the great obstacle to our progress, the mountaineers managed
well enough, jumping from one to another with the agility of cats; but
to those unaccustomed to the kind of work, repeated falls were
inevitable. How I should have got down I really cannot say, had I not
intrusted myself to providence and the strong arm of one of those sons
of nature.
The strong exercise which I had taken rendering me anything but disposed
for a repetition of the sport on the ensuing day, M.G. left me on his
return journey to Mostar, while I proceeded on my solitary way. This,
however, was not so cheerless as I had anticipated, as the two sons of
the house expressed a wish to accompany me as far as Livno on the
Bosnian frontier, where their uncle, a village priest, held a cure. For
several hours we remained on the left bank of the Drechnitza, which we
forded close to its source. On the heights upon our right, fame tells of
the existence of a city, now no more; and it is certain that a golden
idol weighing 23 lbs. was found in t
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