AUSTRIA 29 



from that moment the guns may fire only outward at hares that 

 have passed through the chain. 



Pheasants are not preserved to the same extent as in England, 

 and "hot corner" sport is rather looked down upon as being a 

 mere slaughter of hand-reared, half-tame birds. 



To turn to larger game, such as wild boar and bear, none of 



the former are to be found in Austria outside of parks. Of bear a 



"certain number is still annually killed in Austria proper, 



Bear. 

 some thirty or forty being generally accounted for every 



year in Tyrol and along the southern frontiers of the empire. In 



Transylvania, Hungary and Bosnia they are comparatively numerous, 



to judge by the useful game statistics which a paternal government 



takes pains to make as correct as possible. 



For chamois and deer preserves, to return to that subject, we 



have to look on the northern slopes of the Alps, for on the southern 



tlanks the absence of timber and the greater summer 



1 r 1 1- 1 -T^i ■ • 1 Chamois 



heat are fatal disadvantages, 1 hey are, it is perhaps 



needless to point out, subject to certain climatic risks 



which a would-be tenant must not lose sight of Bad winters, and 



more particularly heavy falls of snow in the spring, entail often great 



losses, especially in the case of red deer, I have known isolated 



instances where preserves have not quite recovered for eight or ten 



years. Sometimes the fall of snow is so heavy that, even if stacks 



of mountain hay are provided, the enfeebled animals are unable to 



reach these havens of refuge, and simply starve to death. Another, 



but remoter, danger is the rot which chamois catch from the sheep 



so afflicted. Sheep are often sent up to the high pasturages on, or 



