180 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



fast in a snowdrift which was over his hannches. I 

 got near him, and knocked him on the head with my 

 hatchet." 



" But you might have helped him out, which would 

 have been much better." 



" He was half-frozen/' he answered, " and quite ex- 

 hausted with struggling : he would not have got over it 

 if I had." 



" And what did you do with him ? Did you take him 

 to the forester ? " 



" No, we kept him ; we divided him between us and 

 took him home." 



"What! you kept him!" 



" Oh, at that time a stag was not so much thought of 

 as now. • However it was the first and last time I ever 

 took one, though I might often have done so. Yonder, 

 you see," he continued, pointing to a little declivity, 

 " was the place where they regularly crossed from one 

 wood to the other — one might have had a shot there any 

 morning ; and in passing the hollow way as usual, that 

 stag fell into the deepest part and could not go further. 

 In winter-time, up here in the woods, ; tis hard work to 

 get along, I assure you."* 



* When the winters are severe, a great amount of game is sure to 

 perish. It is not hunger only that they have to contend against : the 

 deep snow is also quite as frequently fatal to them. In attempting to 

 cross it their slender limbs sink through the slightly-encrusted surface, 

 and, utterly unable to extricate themselves, they are at last frozen to 

 death or overwhelmed by a fresh fall of snow. In the winter of 1854- 

 55 the following red-deer and chamois died from the above causes. This 

 neighbourhood, be it observed, abounded in deer, it being one of the pre- 

 serves of the present King of Bavaria. In district Oberammergau, 30 

 good stags, 100 old hinds. In district Buching, 13 good stags, 20 old 

 hinds, 64 calves, 9 chamois, 20 roes. In another chase the remains of 

 30 head of game were found in the spring. Chamois being so much 

 less heavy than a stag are less liable to immersion in the snowdrifts ; 



