THE CHAMOIS 



95 



their night quarters, would have moved down towards their 

 feeding ground near some snow patches beyond the base of 

 the rock, where the ground was already in Bavaria. On 

 getting to the top of the hill, which I did just as the sun was 

 rising over the great glaciers of the distant Zillerthal, I found 

 that the wind was still drawing down the slope, so the change 

 in its direction, which usually occurs about sunrise, had to be 

 patiently awaited. After shivering for some time in the 

 piercing breeze, the wind at last began to shift, and five 

 minutes later it was blowing up the slope. Only now did I 

 venture to creep forward to the edge of the precipice, and 

 craning over, scan the declivity below me. There, sure 

 enough, right at the foot of the cliff, about 250 yards off, but 

 already on Bavarian ground, was a single chamois slowly 

 feeding away from me. My glass soon told me that it was a 

 prize worthy of every effort, nay, almost worth turning poacher 

 oneself. How unjust that this animal, which passed the greater 

 part of the year on Tyrolese soil, should, because it happened 

 to stray across an invisible boundary line, become the property 

 of the King, just at the very time when the big royal chamois 

 drives would, perhaps, cause him to run up to the rifle 

 barrels of some pampered sportsman sitting on his camp 

 stool behind a bush, and anything but deserving the luck of 

 bagging such a rare old buck, who was worthy of the hardest 

 stalk man ever had ! How unlucky, too, that the wind had 

 not changed five minutes earlier, for I felt convinced that my 

 lordly old buck had passed the night on some of the ledges 

 within easy reach of my rifle ! But these ruminations were 

 useless, and as nothing further was to be done that day, I 

 determined to return to the Alp-hut and repeat the experiment 

 the following morning, when I hoped the wind would prove 

 more propitious. On reaching the hut, I found that flaxen- 

 tressed Moidl had returned from her errand to her distant 

 home, and as both she and her brother knew every inch of 

 the country I had been over, I talked matters over with them. 

 My comment that the ' Hohe Geschniirr ' was a fickle place 



