though as it turned out two came forward and one was killed by Fairholme at the highest post. The beat was over, but, as the others had arranged to lunch close to my post, I sat for some time watching, as old bucks often go back behind the beaters. Just as the others were assembling on a flat grassy meadow not far off, I saw a chamois buck stealing down a little watercourse about thirty yards from my post. I had a Paradox in my hand, and was so hurried in the shot that I fired by mistake the right barrel, which was loaded with buckshot. The buck was out of sight in an instant, but as he was going in the direction of the lunch party I called to my friends to look out, as I knew he must come in their sight. I saw no blood where I had fired, and when I rejoined the party I asked them where the buck which I had missed had crossed the meadow. They all said that no buck had appeared, so I took the dachshund and put him on the scent where I fired. In three minutes I found the body stone dead, with one shot in his heart, lying in a hole not fifty yards from where the party were sitting. Judging from his age and the very long hair on his back, this was one of the old bucks that had so long escaped. It was the best chamois I ever killed, and, as it was late in November, was in splendid condition with very long black hair along the spine.
When we got back to the inn where we spent the night, I locked the body up in an old outhouse, intending to have him stuffed whole as a trophy; but the long black hair, known as the ££ bart ” or beard, was so much-coveted by some evil-disposed person, that in the night the lock was broken and all the long hair pulled out. Such a “ bart ” is worth fifteen or twenty gulden to make the hat ornament which every sportsman or would-be sportsman in Austria wears, and the longer the hair the more it is prized. The other old buck had one of the narrowest escapes that ever buck had, as I will tell.
One bright, sunny December day, I went out alone with Willi, the snow lying deep in the shady and sheltered places, and we spied the buck near the top of a wooded cliff in a place where he thought he was safe. But as the snow was deep above, and I thought there was just a chance that he might come downhill, we went on till we were out of sight, and then I sent Willi to climb round above him, while I crept back out of the buck’s sight to a place where I thought he might cross into a ravine. I posted myself behind a boulder at the foot of the pine wood which covered the lower part of the cliff, and waited a long time in the sun, watching. At last he came straight down to me, but so quietly in the deep snow, and keeping himself so well hidden, that I never saw him till his head ap¬ peared on the other side of the boulder behind which I sat, literally within ten yards. I do not know whether he was as much surprised as I was, but he stood for a second, and if I had had a shot-gun or a double rifle I must have got him. But, having a Lee Metford in my hand and being hurried, I cut the hair from the side of his neck with my bullet, and before I could get another cartridge up the buck rushed past me and disappeared in the gully behind. I knew he must come in sight again, and waited till he came on to a ledge perhaps a hundred yards off, where he stood long enough to give me another shot; and then—though I do not expect to be believed—I again grazed the skin without touching the
