dy observed, was of the size of a
small house, or it might be compared to a load of hay; while the smaller
was not much bigger than the wagon. They lay almost contiguous to each
other, with a narrow space, about a foot in width, forming a sort of
alley between them. This space resembled a cleft, as if the two blocks
had once been united, and some terrible force had cloven them asunder.

Caspar only glanced at these peculiarities as he came up--his eye
mechanically searching for the best point of the rock to shelter him
from the game, while it afforded him an opportunity of aiming at them.
It was altogether a very awkward cover--the rock was square-sided as a
wall, with no jutting point that he could crawl behind and rest his gun
over. In fact, at the corners it rather hung over, resting on a base
narrower than its diameter. There was no bush near to it--not even long
grass to accommodate him. The ground was quite bare, and had the
appearance of being much trampled, as if it was a favourite resort--in
fact, a "rubbing-stone" for the yaks. It was their tracks Caspar saw
around it--some of them quite fresh--and conspicuous among the rest were
some that by their size must have been made by the hoofs of the bull.

The sight of these large fresh tracks conducted Caspar, and very
suddenly too, into a train of reflections that were anything but
agreeable.

"The bull's tracks!" muttered he to himself. "Quite fresh, by thunder!
Why he must have been here but a minute ago! What if--"

Here Caspar's heart thumped so violently against his ribs, that he could
scarce finish the interrogation.

"_What if he be on the other side of the rock_?"

The hunter was in a dilemma. Up to that moment he had never thought of
the probability of the bull being behind the rock. He had taken it into
his fancy, that the thicket must be the place of his concealment, but
without any very good reason did he fancy this. It was assigning more
cunning to the animal than was natural; and now on second thoughts
Caspar perceived that it was far more probable the bull should be
sunning himself on the other side of the great boulder! There he would
be near to the herd,--and likely enough there he _was_.

"By thunder!" mentally exclaimed Caspar, "if he be there, the sooner I
get back to the timber the better for my health. I never thought of it.
He could run me down in half a minute. There's no place to escape to.
Ha!--what!--good!"

These e