SALMO-HUCIIO FISHING IN BAVAPJA. 307 



colouring from beech and birch and plane tree which 

 had caught the first touch of frost. It was too early 

 for uniform autumn tints, but the reds and yellows 

 and crimsons were the more striking for their being 

 so widely scattered. On the barer hills narrow strips 

 of plantation had been made in regular order for the 

 sake of shelter. A number of men were working on 

 the rivers at their rafts, picturesquely clad, wild- 

 looking fellows, deft workers with the axe, and, if 

 report does them no wrong, with the gun also. 

 There are many chamois on the mountains, and hares 

 and roe. In the wilder parts of the Tyrol the 

 peasants are often great poachers, and wage a des- 

 perate and sometimes bloody war with the keepers. 

 The Avork of the river-raftsmen must be often dan- 

 gerous. One evening in the dusk G. was startled 

 by seeing what he thought was a woman's figure 

 standing on a narrow plank over a foaming lasher. 

 But it was only an image of the Virgin, and was so 

 contrived that, whilst one side represented her, the 

 other gave the artist's idea of some masculine saint ; 

 and no doubt many a hearty prayer is sent up to the 

 quiet figures as the rafts begin to feel the force of the 

 current which is to carry them over the fall. 



About a mile from the junction there is a dam, 

 with the usual pool below. G. fished one side, and 

 then cautiously waded across and commenced opera- 

 tions from the other, just where a heavy beam lay 

 over part of the channel. Here he threw his trout. 



