2 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



the streets shuffling along still half asleep, stopping 

 however as we swept by the partly hidden faces 

 peeping from the windows, as the mingled melody of 

 the many bells told what was coming all afforded 

 me amusement and gave me intense pleasure. There 

 was then the arrival at the place of our destination, 

 the forester's house, where all his men and under- 

 gamekeepers drawn up in order were awaiting our 

 arrival- the troop of beaters, uncouth, wild-looking 

 peasants, clothed in every description of dress it is 

 possible to imagine the conversation with the head- 

 keeper about the game, and the questions as to the 

 day's sport anxious inquiries too from one of the 

 party, whether a deer that he had wounded some days 

 before had been found or not in short the whole 

 scene in which I had become an actor was totally 

 new and strange to me, and I looked on, curious to 

 see what novelty would happen next. 



Each little incident that has so often since seemed 

 like an every-day occurrence, was full of interest then. 

 We went out at last into the forest, where all was 

 frost-bound, and every branch and twig inclosed in 

 a crystal covering; where not a sound was heard, 

 except the distant tramp of the beaters on the crack- 

 ling snow, as they wound upwards through a hollow. 

 Presently I was left alone at my appointed stand. 

 By-and-bye the sharp sound of a rifle came tingling 

 through the clear air, and soon after a troop of deer 

 would come stepping along quite scared and wonder- 

 ing over the snow. It was a new world to me, all 



