416 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



by mere passing visits that intimate acquaintanceship 

 can be formed : he only who lives with Nature long and 

 frequently can obtain an insight into all her hidden 

 ways. Nor does she reveal herself but to him who truly 

 loves her : he must learn to interpret her changeful 

 countenance, not by scientific rules, but by the force of 

 sympathy, — the sympathy of deep affection. And it is 

 such familiar intercourse that forms one of the great 

 charms experienced by him who, with rifle at his back, 

 stalks up the mountain, or sits watching on its summit. 

 The forest, like the mountain, has a delight of its 

 own ^ — a peculiar, mysterious influence, which grows 

 around the heart, and holds it with the power of a 

 sweetly-influencing spell. The voices and breathings 

 there are different to those heard among the rocks, — 

 that peculiar rustle, as of passing wings, still heard 

 when not a breath is stirring, — the murmur among the 

 branches, and the whisper which floats above the ground, 

 as though the spirits of the flowers were moving about 

 with a hush in that forest world,— all this keeps the 

 eye, and ear, and mind vigilant, and you tread with cau- 

 tion and expectancy among the creeping sunbeams and 

 quickly-flitting shadows. You hear steps now, and the 

 low footfall sounds strangely in that solitude ; but it is 

 retreating, and soon is lost in the surrounding silence. 

 You saw nothing, and it is this very circumstance which 

 imparts mystery, and makes you listen still when the 

 pattering sound has quite died away. Or in strolling 

 on, you will suddenly look round, and from out a thicket 

 see two large bright eyes and a hairy face meet your 

 gaze, and looking fixedly upon you. It is as though the 

 woods were once more peopled with their ancient inhabi- 

 tants, and the fawns and satyrs again returned to their 

 old leafy home. 



