192 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



for Baierisch Zell, intending to pass the night at the So- 

 lachers' cottage, in order to be out betimes the following 

 morning. 



When thus setting out for the chase after a long im- 

 prisonment, a delicious feeling of gladness, an elasticity 

 of heart and limb, possesses the whole being : it is an 

 exquisite sensation. Your nature feels the sweet influ- 

 ences as much as the external nature around you. The 

 refreshing, softening rain, that has filled every valley 

 with a humming sound, makes your heart leap like 

 those rivulets; the blue sky above you seems to have 

 pervaded your mind with its serene colouring, just as it 

 reflects itself in the glittering landscape, still trembling 

 with rain-drops, and sheds over it a peculiar azure bright- 

 ness. Expectation is rife, and as you chat with your com- 

 panion while stepping lightly along, pleasantest thoughts 

 rise with the hopeful excitement ; for as to the chances 

 which you feel sure are before you, why you would not 

 cede them for a kingdom. Every trifle contributes to 

 your delight : it is a pleasure even to be so well shod, 

 and to defy the water and the pointed stones ; you exult 

 in your strength, and in the feeling of independence 

 which that, and a firm heart, and your good rifle give 

 you. The very obstacles you meet on your path pro- 

 duce a pleasurable sense of power to overcome them. 

 The smell of the moistened earth, and the gum-like ex- 

 halations of the pine-forest, are more grateful to you 

 than all the odours of Araby the Blest. 



As we went along, I asked Berger about the elder of 

 the brothers Solacher, and how he was so badly wounded 

 by the poachers. I knew he had been disabled by them, 

 but all the attendant circumstances I had never heard, 

 or had forgotten them. 



" That happened," said Berger, " about an hour's walk 



