208 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



out alone, and wishing to attract their attention in one 

 particular direction, while I got round near them in an- 

 other. There is no animal more curious than a chamois; 

 if he sees something he has not observed before, he looks 

 and looks to make out what it is. They will stare at 

 and examine a thing for hours in this way ; and they 

 are then so busy with the novelty they see, that they do 

 not look about with their usual watchfulness. I think 

 if you had done so they would not have observed you." 



The mention of the Gems Wand reminds me of a cir- 

 cumstance that once occurred near there ; and, being 

 very characteristic, I relate the story as it was told to 

 me a short time ago, by a friend who knew the par- 

 ticulars well. These were his words : — 



" It was to the young forester's assistant, K — , that 

 the adventure happened. He was going along the ridge 

 of the mountain — the Geidauer Eibel Spitz it is called 

 — and looking down, what should he see but twenty- 

 three men standing by the hut. There is a single hut 

 there, you know, on a green aim at the foot of steep 

 wild rocks. Well, he looked at them a long time, and 

 watched what they did, and thought and thought, c If I 

 could only get a shot at one of them — only at one V 

 And so he kept on thinking how it would be possible to 

 manage, and did not go away from the place, but ob- 

 served them through his glass, until at last they began 

 to move. There is a little path that leads from the hut 

 right over the Eibel Spitz, and he saw that they were 

 coming up, one behind the other ; so he lay still among 

 the latschen, and waited till they approached. By-and- 



adopted the same plan. He is lying in the grass near a stick, on 

 which a cloth is fluttering ; while approaching within shot is a herd of 

 antelopes, following one behind the other, and looking at the novelty 

 with countenances expressive of wonder and curiosity. 



