heory. Each of us added to his load one of the aerolites; then, again
returning to the plateau, we plunged into the forest.

One shot that Sumichrast made rendered him happy for the whole day. He
had knocked down a green-colored crossbill, of a species still unknown
in Europe.

"What a queer bird!" cried Lucien. "How did it manage to eat with its
mouth all awry?"

"Its mouth," replied Sumichrast, smiling, "is well adapted to its food.
This bird--which we have here met with quite by chance, as it usually
frequents mountain-tops--feeds on roots, buds, and pine-cones. Owing to
its two mandibles being so strongly made and so curiously arranged it
can cut through, as if with a pair of scissors, branches which a bird
with a pointed beak could never penetrate."

"God is mindful of all His creatures," muttered l'Encuerado, who was
helping to skin the bird. "I had always fancied that these poor
creatures were deformed."

Towards midday the chances of our path brought us to the bottom of a
narrow valley in the midst of a clump of shrubs; this seemed a fit spot
for our bivouac. In the twinkling of an eye, the ground was cleared of
brush-wood and our hut constructed. We had scarcely sat down to take
breath when a slight rustling in the foliage attracted our attention,
and an animal with a bushy tail sprang down from a tree. Gringalet
darted at it, but an abominable smell, which almost suffocated us, at
once made him retreat. A skunk, which in shape and color somewhat
resembles a squirrel, had thus perfectly poisoned our bivouac.

[Illustration: "Above us, the trees crossed their branches."]

Nothing was left for us but to decamp as quickly as possible, for the
stench rendered the place uninhabitable for several days. L'Encuerado
could not find enough bad names for abusing the animal, which, however,
had only availed itself of the means of defense with which nature has
endowed it. Each of us now resumed his burden, sadly enough, I must
confess, and not without throwing a disappointed glance at our hut.
Sumichrast led the way, and did not stop till we found ourselves
perfectly exhausted at the entrance to a deep and narrow gorge. We still
felt sickened by the horrible stench produced by the skunk, and, as we
did not wish to expose ourselves again to a similar misfortune, we
took care, before constructing a fresh hut, to search round the shrubs
and bushes. A few birds shot on the road rendered it unnecessary for us
to hunt any