engaged, a sound fell upon their ears that bore some
resemblance to the bleating of a goat. It appeared to come down from
the sky above them; but they knew that it must be caused by some animal
on the cliffs overhead.

On looking upwards, they beheld the animal; and if its voice had already
appeared to them to be like that of a goat, the creature itself in its
_personal_ appearance, to a very great extent, carried out the
resemblance.

To speak the truth, it _was_ a goat; though not one of the common kind.
It was an _ibex_.

Once more Karl had the advantage of his companions. His knowledge of
natural history enabled him to identify the animal. At the first glance
he pronounced it an ibex; although he had never seen a living ibex
before. But the goat-like shape of the animal, its shaggy coat, and
above all, the immense ringed horns curving regularly backward over its
shoulders, were all characteristic points, which Karl was able to
identify by a comparison with pictures he had seen in books, and stuffed
skins he had examined in a museum.

Ossaroo said it was a goat--some kind of a wild goat, he supposed; but
as Ossaroo had never before been so high up the mountains, and therefore
never in the regions frequented by the ibex, he knew it not. His
conjecture that it was a goat was founded on the general resemblance
which it bore to a goat; and this Caspar had observed as well as
Ossaroo.

They could see the creature from head to foot, standing in a majestic
attitude on a prominent point of the cliff; but although it was in
reality much larger than the common domestic goat, it was so distant
from them as not to appear bigger than a kid. It was _en profile_,
however, to their eyes; and against the blue sky they could trace the
outlines of the animal with perfect distinctness, and note the grand
sweeping curvature of its horns.

The first thought of Caspar was to lay hold of his gun with the idea of
taking a shot at it; but both the others interposed to prevent this--
pointing out the impossibility of hitting at such a distance. Although
seemingly much nearer, the ibex was considerably more than a hundred
yards from where they were seated: for the point of the precipice upon
which it stood was quite four hundred feet above the level.

Caspar, reflecting upon this, was easily dissuaded from his design; and
the next moment was wondering why he had been so near playing the fool
as to throw away a shot--his penulti