30 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



mouth, and began to imitate that peculiar sound be- 

 tokening ardour, impatience, and anger, which the stag- 

 makes at this season when seeking the hind. It was 

 really a pretty sight ; it had even something classical in 

 it. There the young fellow lay, reclining on the fallen 

 trunk, his hat off, his throat bare, and the coming 

 light playing about the upturned shell, as, Triton-like, 

 he blew into his ocean-horn, and made the air vibrate 

 with the hoarse bellowing. Below, in a vast chasm, 

 were floating thin mists, gently rising upwards to meet 

 and to be dispersed by the sun. On they came like 

 waves ; and it needed no very brilliant imagination to 

 behold an ocean before you, and he with the spotted 

 shell lying on its shore. 



But no answer came. Once before we had heard, 

 just as the shadows were beginning to leave the top 

 of the opposite mountain, a hollow sound come mur- 

 muring across the valley before us. It was scarcely 

 audible; it was a low muttering, as though it pro- 

 ceeded from out of the mountain itself. 



"Did you hear it?" exclaimed Meier. "That's 

 the stag, but he is a great way off. He will go, I 

 am afraid, on the other side of the mountain, and 

 then we may not follow him, for there the royal forests 

 end." 



" How vexatious ! he probably has no deer with 

 him, or he would hardly go away." 



And again through his shell sounded the deep 

 hoarse tones ; but it was all in vain. " He must be far 

 off, quite out of hearing, or he would come for certain ; 



