AUSTRIA 



33 



and then, if necessary, creeping up over open slopes where cover is 



painfully scarce, they know little or nothing ; for chamois ground does 



not lend itself as a rule to the employment of such 



tactics. Sharp ridtres, deep lioroes, the sides of which _, 



^ ^ i & & ' Shooting. 



are dotted over with groves of latchen, or dwarf pine, 

 or quite exposed grass-slopes of amazing steepness ; or again, Kaare, 

 i.e., semicircular corries set at the steepest angles and consisting of 

 rOcky debris, which can be approached only from above — these form 

 the usual scene of stalks. Compared with the limestone peaks of 

 many parts of Tyrol or Salzburg, many of the Styrian preserves 

 are easy ground, and any fair walker accustomed to hill -climbing 

 can aspire to become a chamois -stalker in ground of the latter 

 description. What generally puzzles the novice, even in easy pre- 

 serves, is the fact that without practice his shooting will be wild. 

 The man leading the way will climb his slow-looking, but really 

 fast, pace, the long stride, firmly-set, heavily-shod foot which never 

 slips, the lungs that day after day, year after year, are accustomed 

 to ascend slopes set at sixty degrees with the same perfect ease 

 as were they level ground, the bare knees that leave unhampered 

 muscles of steel, these — as well as the at first rather trying mountain 

 air, will combine to show the importance of training when, after the 

 first spurt of 2,000 feet, the two men come to a halt. A brow hardly 

 clammy, lungs and heart that go their steady beat, a hand that were 

 it called into play would show no tremor, compare favourably with 

 the streaming pores, hard-pressed lungs, throbbing heart, and hands 

 that would fail to hold the sights of the rifle on a haystack at a 

 distance of fifty yards. 



