UP THE MOUNTAIN. 251 



I get a shot under such circumstances. To bring down 

 the animal you are after is of course always pleasant, but 

 the satisfaction is at times greatly increased by the ac- 

 companying incidents. The chamois I shot on the Roth 

 Wand, for example, gave me a hundred times more plea- 

 sure than I should have felt in getting one of those first 

 seen on the Miesing. The spot where the creature 

 stands, the scene around it and you, — it is this enhances 

 the charm, and makes the heart leap with delight. Now 

 here was all I could wish for : from that pinnacle, on 

 which he was poised, how he would have come toppling 

 down through the air into the latschen below ! And as 

 I rehearsed the whole scene in my fancy, and grew more 

 and more vexed that it had not been realized, an angry 

 " Donner Wetter \" came rumbling through my teeth ; 

 and flinging my rifle over my shoulder I strode away. 



"Do you see yonder green knoll?" said Neuner, 

 pointing to a rock rising out of the valley, and behind 

 which a path seemed to lead from the lower pasturages. 

 "Well, just on that spot a poacher was shot." 



" W T ho shot him?" I asked. 



" One of the under -foresters. The fellow was a noted 

 poacher, and had already fired several times at the 

 keepers. He was the most desperate in the whole coun- 

 try, and being well known as such they had often tried to 

 get hold of him, and bring him in dead or alive. The 

 young forester was quite alone, and standing just about 

 where we are now, when he saw him from afar coming 

 up the path ; so he sat down and waited for him. He 

 knew the path would lead him to yonder hillock, and 

 presently sure enough he saw his head appear, and then 

 his shoulders, and then the whole fellow. He was aim- 

 ing at him all the while, but it was not until the man 

 had reached the top of the rock, and stood before him at 



