34 SPORT IN EUROPE 



And just such quick shots are of frequent occurrence, for when one 

 has once reached ground frequented by chamois, any sudden turn, or 

 the topping of ever so slight a ridge, may display a solitary old buck 

 taking his morning ramble ere he seeks his shady couch during the 

 hot hours of the day. Then comes that moment of supreme agitation, 

 when the keeper, now also trembling with excitement (for he has seen 

 at the first glance that it is the buck of the glen, possessor of rare 

 lo-inch horns), will grab one by the arm and hiss, " Shoot, shoot ; it's 

 the big buck — shoot!" into one's ear.* And shoot you do, and shoot, 

 and shoot, until the five cartridges in the magazine of your Mannlicher 

 or Mauser repeater have drilled holes in the air somewhere near the 

 chamois, but, alas! never a hair of that waving, much-prized "beard" 

 (the ridge of long hair growing along the backbone of old bucks) will 

 grace your hat a la Tyrolese. And, sooth to say, what else but a 

 miracle could have guided that fieetly-speeding, nickel-coated bullet 

 into that small, rapidly-moving mark, for was not the hand that clutched 

 the rifle "all over the place".'* Far better one had lain low till the 

 buck was out of sight, and then, after a breathing spell to compose 

 nerves and lungs, continued the stalk. If not violently alarmed, which 

 they principally become by getting their pursuer's wind, such solitary 

 bucks are apt to take things easy, and come to a halt within reasonable 

 distance, so that in such instances a carefully continued stalk may after 

 all end quite satisfactorily. To me, as to other men, such pursuit has 



* As bucks are the chief ambition of sportsmen, the novice is generally told by his host 

 that, in order that no doe may fall a victim, the keeper has received orders to tell his Herr 

 whether to shoot. This waiting for the word is often very disturbing to a novice, for the 

 tremendously keen keepers get often more excited than their Herr, and thus add to the latter's 

 agitation. Even staid old chamois shots, when out with a keeper, will suffer from this 

 contagious excitement. 



