THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
The chamois is somewhat more stoutly built than the roe, a good buck 
from the Alps weighing as much as 60 lb. Mr Baillie-Grohman mentions 
one killed in the Dolomites by himself as weighing 73 lb., whilst bucks 
from the Southern Carpathians often far exceed this weight. Tschuddi 
mentions an authentic instance of a buck weighing 125 lb., and another 
of 92 lb., the latter killed in 1870 on the Santis. The big buck killed by 
Count Teleki in Transylvania in August, 1891, weighed 123 lb. clean. 
Does are not so heavy, usually weighing 45 lb. to 50 lb. 
A trophy often seen in the hats of continental sportsmen is the “ gams- 
bart,” or “ Beard of the Chamois.” The name, however, is somewhat 
misleading, as the collection of bristles is made from the hairs that grow 
along the backbone of the buck chamois, from neck to rump. In summer 
these hairs are short but by the time of the rut in November they are often 
six or eight inches in length. Large sums are spent on particularly fine 
bunches, £10 or £15 being no unusual price. At the Vienna Exhibition in 
1910 a crowd of sportsmen often presented a curious and waving mass of 
grey plumes, and it was often noticeable that the stouter and less athletic 
in appearance the man, the larger was his “gamsbart.” These back hairs 
of the chamois are positively electric if stroked from the roots towards the 
tips and negatively so if rubbed in the other direction. 
The horns of the buck chamois are not large and seldom tape more than 
10 inches in length. Mr Baillie-Grohman states that “ The chamois horns of 
the Epirus, the Carpathians, and the Pyrenees are smaller than those found 
in the Central Alps,” but this is not the case with regard to those of the 
South Carpathians, which are, on an average, larger than those of the 
Alps, some of the best trophies known having come from the shootings 
rented by Mr Danford. 
Tlu, longest females’ horns were shot by Mr J. D. Heaton Armstrong 
in Carinthia recently. They measure 12f inches. The Emperor of Austria, 
who, between 1849 and 1902, has killed 1,991 chamois, also possesses a 
female with horns 11 J inches in length, which he killed on July 26, 1889, 
at Salz Kammergut. One of 11£ inches was shot at Retzewat, South Car- 
pathians, by Baron Nopcsa. 
One of the best chamois preserves is the long and jagged limestone 
ranges, intersected by deep ravines on the Bavarian boundary. Here are 
five royal chamois shoots, almost touching one another, and two others 
which are sometimes to be rented. The annual bag ranges from 500 to 
800 chamois, most of them being killed in the great drives that take place 
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