154 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



im Korst Graben), and up the other side, we found the 

 chamois hanging by his bent horns to a branch trailing 

 near the ground. We cleaned him, the carrion crows 

 croaking above us, and then turned homewards. 



" I wonder you did not hear the chamois, Xavier," I 

 said, as we went down the hill. " It is a pity you did 

 not, for then we might have had the two-year-old instead ; 

 not that it much matters though." 



" I don't hear as well as I did/' he answered. " I 

 was at the great festival at Munich this year, and shot 

 in the shooting-match : the thousands of shots that were 

 fired have almost deafened me j and though I now hear 

 better, I have still a buzzing in my ears." 



" Did you get a prize ?" 



" I believe I shall, but it is not settled yet. Most 

 likely the second. Out of two hundred shots eight only 

 missed the bull's eye, and of these five were fired at the 

 running stag.""* 



" But, Xavier, if you don't get a prize with such 

 practice as that, who could possibly hope for one ?" 



a Oh, there were many who shot better than I did. 

 The first prize my brother Joseph will perhaps get." 



I inquired about the game he had shot, and he told 

 me that last year thirty-six stags had fallen to his rifle. 

 This will give an idea of the abundance of game that 

 formerly was on the mountains. He added, that one 

 morning, when out early, he had counted seventy-five 

 red-deer and a hundred and fifty chamois as he went 



* This is a figure of a stag made of wood, and put on wheels running 

 in a gi-oove ; on the shoulder is a target, with a red heart painted on it. 

 At 125 yards from the spot where you stand are green bushes. The 

 stag is drawn back out of sight, and at a given signal he runs by, and 

 in crossing the open space between the bushes the target is fired at. As 

 the animal moves along it has quite the effect of a real stag passing 

 through the forest. 



