24 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



as the shadows were beginning to leave the top of the 

 opposite mountain, a hollow sound come murmuring 

 across the valley before us. It was scarcely audible j it 

 was a low muttering, as though it proceeded from out of 

 the mountain itself. 



"Did you hear it?" exclaimed Meier. "That's the 

 stag, but he is a great way off. He will go, I am afraid, 

 on the other side of the mountain, and then we may not 

 follow him, for there the royal forests end." 



" How vexatious ! he probably has*no deer with him, 

 or he would hardly go away." 



And again through his shell sounded the deep hoarse 

 tones ; but it was all in vain. " He must be far off, quite 

 out of hearing, or he would come for certain ; he would 

 be sure to answer the challenge. But since we heard 

 him last, he has gone no doubt over the brow of the 

 mountain, on the other side where the sound cannot 

 reach him. It is of no use to wait any longer." 



So up we got and went further. We stopped at a spot 

 that overlooked the whole dell and gave a good view of 

 the steep mountain-side facing us. " We may perhaps 

 see a roebuck — it is not at all unlikely — the underwood 

 there is a good covert for them," said Meier ; and jump- 

 ing on the stump of a felled tree, which overhung the 

 precipitous declivity, he gazed carefully around and be^ 

 low. But nothing was to be seen. The new laws which 

 had been in force since the Revolution effectually pre- 

 vented the chance of our seeing any game whatever : all 

 was destroyed or driven away. Some goats only with 

 tinkling bells round their necks were browsing here, and 

 came near to look at us ; then on a sudden they sprang 

 away, with a troop of white kids after them. 



tached to the corners below. The capaciousness of such a rucksack is some- 

 thing quite marvellous ; there is really no end to what maybe stuffed into it- 



