152 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



a day as this had been, and when you have missed 

 one or two shots, the limbs seem to have lost their 

 usual elasticity, and you plod along more wearily than 

 at another time, when the fatigue has been twice as 

 great, but the sport and shooting good. The path 

 was however so bad that it was not possible to go 

 very quickly ; it was dark too, which made it still less 

 easy. Sometimes the road was formed by the stems 

 of trees laid side by side, now rendered slippery by 

 water and long use. In one place, while going down- 

 hill, my foot slipped between the stems, one of which 

 crossed my shin about half-way between the ankle and 

 the knee. It was with no small difficulty I prevented 

 myself from falling forwards ; had I done so, the shin- 

 bone must inevitably have snapped. There is no end 

 to the mishaps one is exposed to in the mountains, 

 even under favourable circumstances ; hence the care 

 the hunter always takes to reach the valley while it is 

 light; for where the path is narrow, or the descent 

 precipitous, it would sometimes be an awkward thing 

 to be overtaken by the night. 



Long before we reached the village it was quite 

 dark. The several foresters were at the inn that even- 

 ing, and there was laughing, music, and merriment ; 

 gay as it was, yet to me, somehow or other, the even- 

 ing before in the Senn Hiitte seemed much more 

 pleasant and cheerful, the thing was, yesterday I had 

 not missed a chamois. 



Kobell, in one of his poems, has well represented 

 this state of mind. He has taken a little incident of 



