THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
chance. All this is done without walking a yard or employing one artifice 
of woodcraft. 
The best class of sportsmen in Austria , however, scorn such methods 
and love to stalk the roaring stag in the primeval fastnesses of the great 
forests, where the chase of red stag is, in most cases, by far the most diffi- 
cult of all European sports with the rifle. Even the chamois and the moufflon 
are not so hard to kill as the great stags of the Carpathians, most of which 
live on from year to year in the inaccessible places they have chosen. 
The grandest of these forests, and one that has within the past fifteen 
years produced some of the finest heads in Europe, is that of Tartarow, in 
Galicia, which is rented by Prince Henry of Liechtenstein from the Aus- 
trian Government. It is difficult to say how large it is, but roughly it may 
be said to be 400,000 or 500,000 acres — i.e. about as large as Sussex — a 
vast area of virgin forest covered with immense firs as well as beech and 
other deciduous trees. In summer cattle and goats graze on the little 
green alps, or polankas, which run up to 5,000 or 6,000 feet; but after 
September 1 these are deserted by arrangement with the peasant tenants, 
and all is quiet by the time the roaring season commences on Septem- 
ber 15. 
In such a domain it might be thought that with careful preservation 
and good feeding deer would be numerous, but such is not the case. There 
are many reasons why the ground cannot hold a big stock, the principal 
being the severity of the winters. Other causes are the narrow limits of 
the feeding grounds, destruction by wolves, and poachers. These tend 
to keep the stock low and high-class, for it is well known to naturalists 
that the more deer are harassed the fewer they are, and that the smaller 
number of hinds each “ master” stag obtains, the better the heads will 
be. Accordingly, Tartarow is a forest of quality and not quantity. 
The average Tartarow stags carry heads of twelve to sixteen points, 
with a length of about 40 inches. The head with the largest number of 
points killed in this forest carried twenty-two, but Prince Henry has seen 
one head killed in the West Carpathians that had twenty-eight. The largest 
head is 52 inches, but it is not one of the best. The heaviest stag shot was 
weighed not only clean but when cut to pieces, when it would have lost 
at least 30 lb. in blood. This remarkable animal weighed 279 kilos — i.e. 
558 lb. — a weight equal to that of a good wapiti male. Several others have 
exceeded 250 kilos. 
Between the years 1894 and 1909, 303 stags have been killed; the best 
318 
