56 CHA.MOIS HUNTING. 



hut, where everything is so close together, and there is 

 little room to move, you cannot do much with a rifle, 

 it 's too long in close quarters like that a pistol may 

 do good service." 



"But how did you bring down your three cha- 



v> 



mois r 



" One I put in my rucksack, and the other two, 

 as there was snow on the ground, I dragged down. 

 On the Wendelstein 1 once I shot a chamois, and after- 

 wards a roebuck. The chamois I put in the sack, 

 and the buck across it over my shoulders. One can 

 carry almost anything so, and capitally too/' 



We now came to the broad path or mountain way 

 that leads up the Miesing, made to enable the wood- 

 cutters to bring down the wood in winter, as well as 

 for the cattle which in the summer months are driven 

 up to the high pasturages. Beside us, on our left, a 

 clear stream was falling over the blocks of stone that 

 had tumbled into its channel, and beyond it rose a 

 wall of rock, well-nigh perpendicular, eight hundred 

 feet or more. This was the Gems Wand, a famous 

 place in other days ere the new laws had been put in 

 force, and where, on ledges so narrow that it seemed 

 a bird only might cling there for some moments, the 

 chamois were always to be seen, standing at gaze or 

 stepping carelessly along. But now the rock was 

 indeed desolate. Over the face of this high wall of 

 stone were scattered the friendly latschen, with here 

 and there a pine that had been able to twist its roots 

 into some gaping crevice. It was as nearly perpendi- 



