226 IN THE LAND OP THE BORA. 



as many of the others had to content them- 

 selves with a pack-saddle pure and simple. 

 Besides, the bright-coloured dresses of continental 

 sportsmen lend themselves to such a picture. 

 The track had not improved since our January 

 chamois shoot ; but, except for the bad going, it 

 was a delightful ride. The further we went the 

 higher grew the scrub. Violets, already quite 

 over in the plain, blossomed everywhere, and the 

 hillside was covered with laburnum in full flower. 

 For beauty of colouring the first leaves of the 

 beech were perhaps hard to beat, but the brown 

 of the sycamore ran them close. 



As the beaters were to begin at ten o'clock, it 

 soon became obvious that we had too much time. 

 Soon after eight we sighted our chamois ground 

 of January last, but bore to the right of it and 

 also of the sheepfold, where we then left our 

 horses — of which more anon — and skirted the 

 rounded hill of Komic. At last a towering rock 

 above us is pointed out as the Bear's Peak, and 

 the second line of guns branch off towards their 

 posts. We are approaching a couloir, up which 

 surely no horse can go. When we reach it, how- 

 ever, we find a zigzag track, about as bad a place 

 as horse ever laid shoe on, but our horses go up 

 it without a mistake. A few minutes later we 

 reach the ground, and the horses are led back to 

 Komic. When we take up our posts, the ground 



