"
"Our good star, father," said he. "Ernest and I were walking round these
rocks, and talking of his wish for a resting-place for my mother on her
way to the garden. He projected a tent; but the path was too narrow to
admit it; and the rock, heated by the sun, was like a stove. We were
considering what we should do, when I saw on the summit of the rock a
very beautiful little unknown quadruped. From its form I should have
taken it for a young chamois, if I had been in Switzerland; but Ernest
reminded me that the chamois was peculiar to cold countries, and he
thought it was a gazelle or antelope; probably the gazelle of Guinea or
Java, called by naturalists the chevrotain. You may suppose I tried to
climb the rock on which this little animal remained standing, with one
foot raised, and its pretty head turning first to one side and then to
the other; but it was useless to attempt it here, where the rock was
smooth and perpendicular; besides, I should have put the gazelle to
flight, as it is a timid and wild animal. I then remembered there was a
place near Tent House where a considerable break occurred in the chain
of rocks, and we found that, with a little difficulty, the rock might be
scaled by ascending this ravine. Ernest laughed at me, and asked me if I
expected the antelope would wait patiently till I got to it? No matter,
I determined to try, and I told him to remain; but he soon determined to
accompany me, for he fancied that in the fissure of a rock he saw a
flower of a beautiful rose-colour, which was unknown to him.
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