AUSTRIA 



31 



been particularly successful in bringing poachers to justice, in order 

 to prevent murder being done. In such cases an exchange is effected 

 with some friend's keeper, so as to remove him as far as possible from 

 the scene of the operations of his revengeful antagonists. 



A v^ord must here be said about game-laws and the legal powers 

 and appointment of keepers. In Austria no person who does not 

 own 200 Joch, or 287 acres, in one piece, can exercise the right of 

 shooting. Smaller holdings are joined, and the shooting rights are 

 let by the commune for periods of not less than five or seven years 

 at public auction, the details of which must be advertised for a certain 

 leng-th of time. 



Keepers, before they can be appointed with power to apprehend 



poachers and, if necessary, to make use of their ritle, must receive 



a permit from the Bezirkshatiptniannschaft or District 



Keepers. 

 Court. They have to take an oath of office and pass 



certain elementary examinations. If they are foresters as well as 



keepers, the examination is a more difficult one, for forestry is a 



regular profession, and the Government employs many thousands 



not only to look after the woods and forests of the Crown, but also 



to supervise private timber-land. Thus, no one is allowed to fell 



in any year more than a certain small proportion, the injudicious 



wholesale clearing of mountain -sides having been followed in many 



mountainous provinces by fearfully destructive floods. Hence the 



proper administration of the forest laws is of great importance for 



the well-being of alpine communities. 



Not all mountain preserves offer the same facilities for red deer 



and chamois, for in those forests (to use the word in the Highland 



