46 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



a long time, for its beauty and freshness reminded me of 

 England. 



The forester's house at Fischbachau had once been a 

 cloister ; and the clergyman of the parish still inhabited 

 one half the building. The corridor was filled with rows 

 of antlers, and the sitting-room of the family was deco- 

 rated in the same appropriate manner. All round the 

 top were ranged the bent horns of the chamois ; below 

 these the more majestic antlers of the stag j and lower 

 down, interspersed also at intervals among the others, 

 were those of the roebuck. The windows were filled 

 with ivy and creeping plants, and these trailed along 

 from antler to antler, and hung down in careless fes- 

 toons, or they were twined round the frames hanging on 

 the wall with engraved portraits in thein, among which 

 I recognized some well-known faces. At the further 

 end of the room was a row of rifles and fowling-pieces, 

 with here a strangely-fashioned powder-flask or cramp- 

 ing-irons for the feet in winter ; on a nail hung the ruck- 

 sack, the green hat above it with a gay flower on its 

 brim ; while a guitar in a corner, and a cithern on a 

 table, gave evidence of gentler pastime than the chase 

 affords. But the neatness and the creeping evergreens 

 had already told of feminine care that presided here. 

 All was as simple as possible, but We place looked com- 

 fortable, and everything was deliciously clean. Having 

 changed my wet clothes, I returned and talked with the 

 forester. " It is no pleasure now/' he said, " to have to 

 do with the chase. I do not like even to think about it. 

 The mountains opposite — those you see from the win- 

 dows — were full of chamois, the Miesing especially. 

 Front this room you might often with a telescope see 

 thirty or forty together ; and now on the whole moun- 

 tain there are perhaps not twenty." 



