290 SHORT STALKS 



some hard groiuid. Half an hour was spent in making a 

 careful cast l)elow, in what seemed to be their direction, 

 but we failed to recover the line. All this time the dog 

 continued to have the wdnd, l)ut doubtfully, and as he 

 kept eyeing the ground above him we took the hint anjl 

 tried up the hill again. Perhaps we had rather relaxed 

 our caution. May be we came too suddenly over the edg;e 

 of a little gully, filled with a growth of young firs. Some- 

 thing started Ijelow us. " Mais voycz done. Tirez rite ! " 

 But whatever Celestin saw was invisible to me, and it is 

 no good shooting at a fir clump. We sat down and 

 lunched, and out of our leather cups drank the waters of 

 disappointment. Alas ! before we had done, we had to 

 drain them to the dregs. Celestin, meanwhile, consoled 

 himself by apostrophising the stag and his relati(3ns. It is 

 his habit to hurl opprobrious epithets at any animal in 

 which he is interested, and the move he respects its intelli- 

 o-ence, the stronoer the lanouaoe. Once, when on a visit 

 to me in England, he was taken, among other sights, to 

 see the Law (J(uu-ts. Much impressed l)y the judge on the 

 Bench, he felt that he was expected to say something. 

 He summed up his impressions in four words, which, in 

 his mouth, far from indicating any contempt of Court, 

 expressed both reverence and astonishment — " Ma/s Ir 

 vieux cod I on / " 



I may mention that Celestin, as is natural for a 

 chamois hunter, has little faith in the dog. He places 

 his chief reliance on the telescope. In m\' judgment, in a 

 forest such as we were hunting in, it is almost useless. It 

 is true that there ai'e vistas and narrow openings whirh 

 may l)e surveyed, Jind where deer may be occasionally 



