were, among the bushes j and here they passed or paused 

 a moment or two as they chased each other : it was a 

 merry company. We lay flat on the ground, with our 

 chins in a bush, and watched them. 



" I dont see a buck; do you, Xavier?" said I. 



" No, I hardly think there is one. It is almost too 

 late now. But a doe is there," he continued, with his + 

 eye still to his glass, " with curious horns : one is upright, 

 and the other grows forwards straight out of her fore- 

 head.* Look," pointing with his glass, " don't you see that 

 one to the right, half standing on a fragment of rock ? — 

 that is the one. It is a long shot, but you would hit it." 



I looked and saw the curious growth, and wished to 

 possess the trophy. But then too I longed for a buck — 

 to get a fair shot at a buck — and still I hoped there 

 might be one among the herd, and that I might see him 

 before he made for the latschen. Thus was I divided 

 in my intentions ; and hesitation, whether in stalking 

 or in the affairs of life, is sure to lead to no desirable 

 result. While half resolving to make sure of the fine 

 doe before me, the whole herd began to move. They 

 must have got wind of us, for, gazing round, they were 

 all out of sight in a moment. We went upwards again, 

 and along the side of the mountain. 



" Hush \" cried Xavier, " there's a chamois quite 

 alone." 



"Where? Is it a buck?" 



" Yes, but make haste — it has heard us." 



" Here, your rifle !" said I, holding out my hand to 

 take his, the sights of which were very much finer than 



* Strangely enough I saw these very horns again eight years later 

 hanging up in the collection of his Serene Highness the Duke of Saxe 

 Coburg-Gotha, when on a visit to Eeinhardtsbrunn in 1857. Their 

 peculiar growth struck me instantly, and on inquiring I learnt that the 

 doe had really been shot on the mountain where I once had seen her. 



M 2 



