386 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



and stab him where I can. It will never do to trust these 

 fellows. While I was at Brannenburg a keeper lost his 

 life by such imprudence. He met a poacher, and called 

 to him : he did as if he intended to give himself up, and 

 when the other approached, attacked him. They strug- 

 gled together; and each making use of his knife, one 

 was stabbed in seventeen, the other in eighteen places. 

 Both staggered to a village hard by, and there, each in 

 his own house, they died within an hour of one another." 



The following morning we three went out together. 

 On reaching halfway up the mountain, we saw on the 

 other side of a broad chasm a chamois grazing. 



" He has something the matter with his hind leg," I 

 observed, after watching him attentively. " He tries to 

 spare it each time he moves." 



After waiting half an hour to see what he would do, 

 he lay down. The spot where he was, formed a small 

 ledge, with a young birch-tree growing on it, about 130 

 yards below the ridge that overtopped the chasm. It 

 was a sure spot; so my companion retraced his steps, 

 while we lay down to watch his proceedings. After a 

 while I saw him opposite me, his figure diminutive in 

 the distance, creeping upwards. And now he is peering 

 over the brink into the depth below to look for the cha- 

 mois. It seems he cannot discover him among the thick 

 herbage, for the stillness is yet unbroken. But now the 

 report of his rifle crashes from rock to rock : he fires 

 again. We start to our feet, and see the chamois rush- 

 ing down the Smooth rock and coming towards us. 



"He has missed him \" cries Bradler, and at the same 

 moment springs down the steep immediately before us, 

 to try and intercept the chamois. To see him make 

 this Curtius leap was really frightful. The declivity over- 

 grown with trees and bushes was most precipitous, and 



