AUSTRIA 



23 



task, all who try to circumvent them are bound to discover to their 

 cost. 



Of one thing I am, however, certain, and that is that there are far 

 more men in Austria who start out, find, follow up, stalk, and kill their 

 stag, entirely unassisted by keeper or gillie, than there are in Scotland, 

 where, if my informants are correct, this is quite the exception. 

 Indeed, after questioning scores of Scotch stalkers, I have heard of 

 only two men who are known to do this. That the pleasure of 

 succeeding in this by no means outrageously difficult task is very 

 much greater than when one is led up by one's own skilled servant, 

 who does practically everything but pull the trigger, goes, I think, 

 without saying ; and it has always surprised me why otherwise really 

 keen sportsmen show such little ambition to master the art for which 

 they profess such attachment. 



Of chamois shooting, to take the next important animal of the 



chase, I am proposing presently to speak at greater length, for, as 



it is the sport for which Austria is most famous, I am 



Chamois, 

 tempted to devote to it more space than to tur and 



feather. Concerning these, I propose to note only those details in 

 which Austrian sport differs from that known to every English sports- 

 man. Perhaps the most striking difference is the much higher regard 

 in which the roe-deer is held, and the care that is expended upon 

 preserving it, and, on larger estates, on the improvement of the heads. 

 Roe stalking with the rifle in early summer is a favourite form 

 of sport, and being the earliest in the year, its votaries are, after an 

 enforced rest of many months, filled with the greatest zeal. Roedeer 

 are not supposed to be shot with the gun except in such localities. 



