EUROPEAN GAME 
Austria annually. In August bucks are shot to the lure of the female call. 
Perhaps the sport that most attracts the Austrian is that of chamois 
shooting in the high Alps or the timber edge. On the northern slopes of 
the Alps the winters are often very severe, and if food is not provided many 
deer would starve. Chamois, too, often suffer from foot -rot which they 
catch from the sheep sent up to the higher pasturages in summer. Poach- 
ing, also, is very common. The perpetual war carried on between keepers 
and poachers is a more serious affair than it is in England. Many lives 
are sacrificed in the mountain vendetta, whilst over -zealous keepers have 
often to be removed and sent to other shootings to save their lives. The 
Styrian Jagers are a magnificent race of men, true children of the moun- 
tains, and devoted to their masters and the chase. Speaking of chamois 
ground Mr Baillie-Grohman says (“Sport in Europe,” pp. 32-33): 
“ Of stalking in the Scotch sense, i.e., of first spying out your 
ground and then, if necessary, creeping up over open slopes where 
cover is painfully scarce, they (the keepers) know little or nothing; 
for chamois ground does not lend itself as a rule to the employment 
of such tactics. Sharp ridges, deep gorges, the sides of which are 
dotted over with growth of latchen % or dwarf pine, or quite exposed 
grass slopes of amazing steepness; or again Kaare , i.e., semicircular 
corries set at the steepest angles and consisting of rocky debris, 
which can be approached only from above these form the usual scene 
of stalks. Compared with the limestone peaks of many parts of Tyrol 
or Salzburg, many of the Styrian preserves are easy ground, and 
any fair walker accustomed to hill -climbing can aspire to become a 
chamois -stalker in ground of the latter description. What generally 
puzzles the novice, even in easy preserves, is the fact that without 
practice his shooting will be wild. The man leading the way will 
climb his slow-looking, but really fast, pace, the long stride, firmly 
set, heavily-shod foot which never slips, the lungs that day after day, 
year after year, are accustomed to ascend slopes set at sixty degrees 
with the same perfect ease as were they level ground, the bare knees 
that leave unhampered muscles of steel, these — as well as the at first 
rather trying mountain air, will continue to show the importance of 
training when, after the first spurt of 2,000 feet, the two men come to 
a halt. A brow hardly clammy, lungs and heart that go their steady 
beat, a hand that were it called into play would show no tremor, com- 
pare favourably with the streaming pores, hard-pressed lungs, 
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