exquisite beauty of the whole
scene, particularly as it then appeared. The sun breaking through the
clouds, threw his sharply-defined rays of light into the depths of the
misty defile, playing upon the foam of the water, and giving life and
colour to the hanging woods. I hardly took it in at the time, but rather
remembered the details afterwards; for my thoughts were occupied in
trying to judge the distance up to which I might fire with any chance of
success--distances are always very deceptive on the mountains.

I must observe that we hoped to get a shot at some bears, but the
chamois were the legitimate object of the hunt. The late autumn or early
winter is the best time for bear-hunting.

I had not been long at my post when I heard two shots in quick
succession fired below me. I found a chamois had been shot.

For our next battue we turned right-about face, the beaters coming from
the other side; but we had bad luck. One of our party saw a bear at some
distance, fired, and--missed it. The fact of a bear having been sighted
encouraged us in keeping up our battues pretty late, but nothing more
was shot that day. It was very disappointing, because if the bear was
thereabouts our numerous staff of beaters ought to have turned him up
again. Some of the party were altogether sceptical about a bear having
been seen at all. Of course the man who had fired held to the bear as if
it was the first article in his creed. The dissentients remarked that
"believing is seeing," as some one cleverly said of spiritualism. I
don't know whether it was better to think you had missed your bear or
had no bear to miss.

When we returned to the hut in the evening we found that a couple of men
left in charge had made some great improvements. The Wallacks, who are
sharp ready-handed fellows, to do them justice, had in our absence cut
down some trees, split them with wooden pegs, and constructed out of the
rough timber a long table and a couple of benches. These were placed in
front of our hut; the supper was spread, the table being lighted with
some four lanterns, supplemented by torches of resinous pine-wood.

The weather had been fair, though sport had been bad, so with a feeling
not "altogether sorrow-like" we sat down to a hearty good meal. One of
the dishes was chamois-liver, which is considered a great delicacy. We
had, indeed, several capital dishes, well dressed and served hot--a most
successful feast at 5000 feet above the sea-leve