276 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



" Forty chamois have been shot ; but as to the stags 

 it is quite a riddle where all the good ones have gone. 

 Hardly a single good hart has been seen this year." 



As we talked, one or the other of us mentioned the 

 Zug Spitz, and this reminded me I had long wanted to 

 get some information about the ascent, which was diffi- 

 cult, and had been accomplished for the first time only 

 a few years before."* 



" It is about five hours' walk from Partenkirchen to 

 the place where you commence the ascent," Neuner told 

 me, in answer to my questions ; " but it is too late in 

 the year to attempt it now. A cowherd there, who is a 

 sort of guide, has been up twice. 'Tis a wild place at the 

 top !" 



" What, have you been there ?" I asked. 

 " Yes, I went up with the bead-forester and several 

 others. There are only two places which are ugly and 

 difficult ; one is a narrow ridge, a sort of bridge, which 

 you have to cross, with a precipice straight down on 

 both sides of you three-quarters of an hour deep.f It 

 is very horrible, there's no denying that ; all looks so 

 wild, and rent, and torn. If you like you may ride across 

 astride." 



" Did you do so ?" 



" No, I walked over : that I did not mind at all. But 

 the other place, near the top, is much worse: it is a 

 steep slope of ice ; we were obliged to cut steps with a 

 hatchet all the way, and got on well enough. But the 

 coming down is the worst, for if you slip there's an end 

 of you." 



* It is very little less than 11,000 feet high. 



f In Germany it is usual to compute thus by time, meaning in this 

 instance it would take three-quarters of an hour to arrive at the 

 bottom. 



