TO PARTENKIRCHEN. 261 



all around there are poachers, and from the villages 

 the peasantry go out and shoot everything they see. 

 I think the best place for you to try will be the 

 Oester Berg : it was a capital mountain formerly, and, 

 though it has been well-nigh cleared, it still is the 

 most likely one for a successful stalk. There is a hut 

 about half-way up where you can sleep : that is to 

 say, you will find straw to lie on and milk to drink. 

 Bread you had better take with you/' 



In the afternoon, putting a few things into my ruck- 

 sack, and leaving the rest with the landlord at Par- 

 tenkirchen, I started for Farchant. I soon found the 

 forester, and we talked over the chances of seeing 

 chamois, and where it was best to go. " You would," 

 he said, "be more likely to get a shot on this side 

 than on the Oester Berg. I was there the other day, 

 and saw chamois : two bucks are there for certain, 

 but if we shall meet them it is of course impossible 

 to say." Then came the old tale, falling sorrowfully 

 enough on a hunter's ear, that a year or two ago, 

 had I been there, I might have had sport in plenty, 

 but now all the best mountains were quite depopu- 

 lated. This is a theme which at once causes a dark 

 look to pass over the face of a forester. Angry feelings 

 and hatred rise with a sudden gush within him, as he 

 thinks of the times when those mountains and forests 

 were his pride, and remembers that the stag and the 

 chamois which he watched so lovingly have been since 

 then swept away by bands of lawless marauders. I 

 may safely assert that, in the breast of no set of men 



