THE STAG OF THE ALPS 117 



the lower slopes of the mountains they find a mild climate and 

 the best horn- producing food during the winter months, while 

 during the summer they make undisturbed raids upon the rich 

 agricultural valleys below, where they find the wherewithal 

 for many -a stone of extra weight, the feudal sway exercised 

 by the great territorial magnates permitting the deer to trespass 

 upon the crops with impunity, and thus grow to be the lustiest 

 of their race. In the higher Central Alps, in Styria, Tyrol, 

 and the Bavarian Highlands, the stags are smaller and their 

 antlers shorter and proportionately less massive, being about the 

 size of the best Scotch heads. In the Alps the inclemencies of 

 severe winters, lack of food as well as lack of shelters, tell upon 

 the growth of the whole race. 



In other respects, however, the stag of the true Alps is a 

 grander beast than his lazier and sleeker brother to be found 

 on the slopes of the Carpathians. Scarcer, far harder to obtain, 

 amid surroundings not unsimilar to those which make chamois 

 shooting such keen sport, stalking the Alpine stag has for those 

 who are fond of real mountain sport more attractions than the 

 pursuit of the larger and less wily Hungarian stag. 



STALKING THE ALPINE STAG 



The home of the Hungarian and of the Alpine stag differs 

 very materially from that of the Scotch deer. The more or 

 less treeless ' forest ' of Scotland is replaced in the first named 

 locality by superb woods of deciduous as well as of coniferous 

 trees ; in the latter by dense pine, fir, and larch woods. These 

 are forests which do not belie their name, and their owners are 

 never forced to kill off stags in order to save a few precious 

 trees, an unpleasant alternative by no means unknown to 

 Scotch lairds. 



To the presence of these forests must be ascribed the entirely 

 different mode of stalking pursued in Austria from that known 

 to the Scotch deerstalker. The view over great expanses of open 

 hill land, which is the most typical incident of Scotch sport, 



