IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 351 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



" To finish the season." Sad words for the sports- 

 man. How often have I read them with regret 

 following such announcements as " Grafton, Cow- 

 per's Oak," or " Kildare, Dunlavin " ! But they 

 may be applied to other forms of sport besides 

 hunting ; and the season must indeed have been a 

 good one that the true sportsman can see close 

 without regret, especially in a country to which 

 he may possibly never again have a chance of 

 returning. 



The end of October — the legal close of the all- 

 too-short chamois season in the Herzegovina — was 

 at hand. My poor friend Miller summed it up 

 in a few words : " First half, too hot to move, 

 sheep on all the stalking-ground ; second half, rain 

 and mist." There is much truth in this pithy 

 summary, and in this year the season ended in a 

 succession of wet days. On the morning of the 

 thirtieth I woke to the patter, patter, of the rain- 

 drops on the outer fly of the tent ; but when coffee 

 had been despatched the rain had stopped, and, 

 though the day looked desperately bad, I decided 



