HINTS. 225 



150 yards below us, was a cliamois just leaping away 

 into the bushes. Had we been advancing with the 

 caution we had observed till then, I might have shot 

 him easily. Chamois very frequently wander far down 

 a mountain, just as a stag will sometimes hide in corn 

 or bushes only high enough to conceal his prostrate 

 body. Be therefore always as heedful as though you 

 were aware that game was immediately in front of you. 



If there is a drive, as soon as you reach your ap- 

 pointed post make yourself ready. And because you 

 may have half an hour or an hour before the drive 

 begins, do not on that account be careless and inatten- 

 tive during this time. The game may be on the move, 

 or come near you of their own accord and before a 

 beater has stirred ; and if you are not watching, it steals 

 away unobserved or observed only when too late. It 

 may happen, too, that a deer is close to the spot where 

 you are standing in the wood, watching you, perhaps, and 

 w aiting to observe your doings. 



Once when in the forest, expecting the moment when 

 the drive was to begin, I by chance after a time looked 

 on one side of me, and to my surprise beheld three stags 

 all gazing and wondering at my presence. I dared not 

 move to seize my rifle, or they would have been off in a 

 second ; but had I been more attentive I might have 

 been ready for them as they approached, or have brought 

 my rifle to my shoulder before they had been so long 



