308 IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 



before hirn. It was to be a double beat, from 

 rigbt and left simultaneously. The position was 

 a beautiful one. Before the right-hand guns 

 was the high isolated peak of Kuvinikigradac, a 

 favourite resort of the chamois, while the left 

 one closed in a long corrie between that peak 

 and the main line of cliff. Alas ! again the 

 beaters spoiled our chance, which seemed so 

 promising when we heard one of them let off his 

 long Turkish gun early in the beat. They finally 

 appeared, all in a knot in front of the left-hand 

 guns, and reported that they had seen a herd 

 of nine, which had gone up the gradac. In 

 other words, had they beaten properly these 

 must have come to the guns. The mistake was 

 ours ; we should have changed our beaters that 

 day, and taken Smrcanj men. The natives of 

 this country beat fairly well, but on their own 

 ground. Take them to a hill with which they 

 are unfamiliar, and they are no good at all. The 

 Lakat men only know the Velez as far as the 

 Botin; beyond that the woodcutters and shep- 

 herds below to the Mostar Sub-prefecture. After 

 this it was small consolation to hear that the 

 other beaters had had no less than thirty head 

 before them, but had failed to hold them, and 

 they had all gone " out over," as they say on 

 Exmoor. 



So ended our three days' driving. We returned 



