196 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



" And what did you do with him ? Did you take 

 him to the forester?" 



" No, we kept him ; we divided him between us 

 and took him home." 



"What! you kept him!" 



" Oh, at that time a stag was not so much thought 

 of as now. However it was the first and last time 

 I ever took one, though I might often have done 

 so. Yonder, you see," he continued, pointing to a 

 little declivity, " was the place where they regularly 

 crossed from one wood to the other one might have 

 had a shot there any morning ; and in passing the 

 hollow way as usual, that stag fell into the deepest 

 part and could not go further. In winter-time, up 

 here in the woods, 'tis hard work to get along, I 

 assure you." 



"Have you much to do in the forest in winter?" 

 I asked. 



" Yes," he said, " when there 's snow, and it is hard 

 enough to bear, we bring down the wood that we cut 

 in the preceding months, which it would be impos- 

 sible to do at any other time ; for there are no roads 

 up here, and the paths are so stony that no cart 

 could move over them. But as soon as we can make 

 a Bahn (a smooth hard surface on the snow) we load 

 the wood on sledges, and so bring it down the moun- 

 tain." 



" 'Tis hard work, is it not? " I asked. 



" Ay, and dangerous too," he said : " such a load 

 of wood is heavy, and on the smooth snow comes 



