me three days before—was growling surlily. I followed an old timber road, and the stalk was so easy that I am almost ashamed of it. But there was a curious circumstance connected with it. After the shot one of the hinds, which had been in the company of the stag, stopped on the rise at a short distance, and kept on barking' at intervals. We were seeking for the track of the stag I had shot at, for I did not then know that he lay dead within twenty yards, when there was a loud crash of broken sticks close to us; but, being in a hollow, we could not see what it was. While we were speculating on the cause, the second man, whom I had left on the timber road, came down to tell us that another great stag had come right across the valley, attracted by the hind. This was one proof among several that I had that in these unsophisticated regions the deer pay little attention to a gun shot. He had nearly walked over us in his eagerness to reach the hind. His escape did not distress me, for I was well content with my prize. This was a far finer beast than the first one, the antlers measuring 45 inches, with an inside width of 40 inches, and when the separate portions were subsequently brought to scale they topped 35 stone. Thus my early good fortune was not only maintained, but was on the ascending scale. I knew that this stag was at least worthy to be awarded a 'good second class,' but that night my host still encouraged me to hope for a better one.

I cannot expect the reader to follow me into the details of the damp but delightful days of wandering which I spent at my next post-the valley of Dziurdziniec. This was a long and deep defile, with more precipitous sides than are generally found in the Carpathians, and it lay so out of the way that even my host had never visited it. Yet it was well tenanted. As the beat, which comprised another valley, was very extensive, there were four huts to cover it; but I did not shift my quarters, for the simple reason that no pony could go from one to the other.

My companion here was the ex-poacher Jaki. Jaki has considerable knowledge of his craft. He is very tall and lanky, and his movements reminded me of the gliding of a serpent. Though, no doubt, he had laid low many a fine beast in his unregenerate days, no stag had been killed to him' on his own beat since he had become a garde-chasse and a respectable member of society. He was thus on his mettle. Of spoken words we had none, but there was a perfect understanding between us. If, being in doubt, I looked back for suggestions, Jaki's anxious face was at my elbow. Unlike most of these peasants, he always knew his own mind, and was at no loss to express it with a sign. He had a blind and child-like belief in my unerring aim—an evidence of the confiding simplicity of his character -I in his woodcraft. As the rut was at its height and several good stags were wandering to and fro, and crying in this wilderness, I was continually following up one or another of them. I frequently got

very near without attaining success. Sometimes the pungent smell of the animal would smite me in the face, but, not being a dog, I failed to take the right turn. In such blind-man's buff, the stag might probably get a whiff of an odour not less startling to him. It is surprising how silently these heavy creatures depart when they are suspicious. Once I heard a stag roll in his mud bath, and yet I could not get a sight of him. Often it was the mere restlessness of passion which impelled them to move off. Yet my good fortune continued, for I killed three more stags in three days. On each occasion Jaki covered my hand with kisses, and then going down on his knees kissed my legs, a piece of most delicate flattery, but a thing to make a modest man blush.

Here I must make a confession. I twice shot the wrong stag. The first mistake was in this wise. There was a grassy alp high up on the ridge, and I had shot a good stag of eleven points which had fallen dead in the opening; but before I could reach the spot to examine my prize, another took up his parable in a double bass which appeared to belong to a beast of large size. The voice proceeded from a steep timbered bank which faced me, at a distance of less than two hundred yards. Thinking that the animal would probably come out into the opening, I hastily concealed myself in a group of trees. For four hours I sat there listening to the exhortations of this patriarch. At the end of that time my patience was rewarded, or at least I thought so. I saw the dim figure of a stag emerging from the edge of the trees, exactly in the direction I expected, and at once jumped to the conclusion that this was the gentleman who had been preaching his sermon all the morning. As he passed for a moment behind a bunch of spruces, I drew forward in a sitting position. The moment he reappeared he saw me, and up went his head with a jerk. I ought to have examined him more carefully, but, without waiting, rolled him over stone dead. It proved to be a small Beihirsch of eight points, a mere brocket or baby of 23 stone. Within five minutes of my firing the shot, the real patriarch recommenced his advice to his family, in the same spot as before. This time I tried to beard him in his castle, but the contingency which I dreaded occurred. The wind, which was high and shifty, carried my taint to his nose, when I had got within fifty yards of him.

Two mornings later I was hotly pursuing a beast who was evidently intent on provoking a contest with another of his species, whose voice I also heard in the distance. Every three or four minutes he spoke out vehemently, but I did not depend on ears alone. His track was easy to perceive along the green alley which he trod, and his powerful odour would have been sufficient to follow him by, without any other indication. Thus three of my senses were on the alert, and I thought only of the stag in front of me. cut a long story short, I slew that stag, who carried a head decidedly

To

above the average. Yet I thought, as we counted his points, that Jaki wore a pained expression. There were no explanations of course, but, when Winter had arrived from the hut, I learnt the melancholy truth. Just before I had fired, Jaki had caught sight of the biggest stag he had ever seen,' on the opposite bank, and less than sixty yards from me, doubtless on his way to meet his rival. He said, 'he had touched my elbow, but I paid no heed, and he was afraid of the big English lord.' I had not the smallest recollection of his touching me. In the old chivalrous days I should have suffered penalties for a like breach of the laws of venerie.

When we met again at the Jagdhaus, instead of the chaff which I expected, and richly deserved, I received only encouragement. I might yet get a first-class stag; such a one was known to abide under the mountain called Kukul. The 'Herzog' had tried for him for three days, and one of his men had seen the beast, a hoary monster with a fabulous number of points. The stags there were few, because the forest is very dense, but those which are found in such a place are generally exceptionally good. It was distant, and the best stags had nearly given up roaring. Still there was a chance. Would I go? There was no hesitation on my part. From my previous camp to the new one the journey occupied the best part of three days, allowing for a little casual hunting by the way, though the only thing we captured was a poacher who was taken fishing one of the pools of the Pruth, but released after a good frightening.

I reached my new quarters at Hawrylec Wielki by mid-day, and having had a five or six hours' walk went into the hut to rest. I had dozed off when one of the men came to the door to say that a stag was roaring. Coming out I could hear him distinctly far up the glen. It was only two o'clock, and a strange thing that a stag should be roaring so early. I set him down at once as an impatient youngster. After an hour's rapid walking, I seemed to be getting distinctly near his trumpeting. By the sound, for he kept on speaking at frequent intervals, he appeared to be moving slowly on. Soon after this I found his slot, and it was clear that he was no Beihirsch, but a large heavy stag. Now there was a silent interval, and Nikola, my new attendant, tried to draw him with a call, which he made with his hands, but the feeble imitation produced no response, and we had to wait for half an hour. When at last the stag roared again, the sound was startlingly near us. We now left the Steige,' and the going was thenceforth very rough. For the next hour and more it was a continuous struggle with fallen timber. Sometimes I thought I had reduced the distance between us to less than a hundred yards. Then serious obstacles were always interposed, and the delay would suffer him to gain upon us. The whole time we were climbing over, creeping under, or balancing along slippery, half-rotten stems, till my legs almost refused their office, and, when the muscles are

tired, it is impossible to step with the lightness necessary to ensure silence. In such a case, however, it does not do to be too tender about sticks. Something must be risked, and it even occasionally happens that a broken stick will bring a stag towards the intruder. At last we came to a heavy windfall through which we tried in vain to force a passage, but the stag himself ultimately furnished the clue. We found his track and followed it. And now we arrived at a deep and narrow gulley with a stream at the bottom. The stag was roaring about eighty yards off on the opposite slope, which was very steep. He was of course hidden from me by the usual curtain of foliage. To get down to the stream was easy; to climb, unperceived, the opposite bank was another matter. But it had to be attempted. I remembered that in my previous experience, though I had lost some chances by attempting too much, I had lost more by fearing to attempt anything. We managed the first fifty feet or so up the slippery bank, and then I came in sight of a small grove of young spruces, in which I was able to locate the origin of the sound, though I could see nothing. The next fifty feet were the critical part, especially as the stag now paused in his roaring, as though he had heard something. Nikola wanted to go straight up, but I thought this course hopelessly risky, and withdrew a few yards to where there was a slight hollow, descending the slope, which would partly deaden any noise we might make.

Leaving Nikola behind, I ascended this hollow, foot by foot, safely climbing all the obstacles which cumbered it, and again came in sight of the grove of young trees, which was now not more than thirty yards off, but there were here so many stems of large growing trees that I almost despaired of getting a clear view. As long as I stood still I knew that I was safe from detection. An erect figure among so many erect stems is not easily picked up.' The little tits and golden crests, playing within a yard of my head, were proof of that. There was one narrow vista between two trunks, and I was debating whether to risk a further advance along it when the form of some animal appeared in it. It was in deep shadow and for a moment I mistook it for a stag, and was disappointed at its small size. Then I saw it was a hind. She crossed to the left out of my sight. Another dainty damsel glided across my narrow stage. Then I felt sure the stag would follow, and made ready for him. Sure enough his great head came into sight, carried close to the ground, and gently tossed up and down. He was moving very deliberately, and it seemed an age before a forest of gleaming white points, laid well back on his withers, appeared-truly noble antlers. The space was not wide enough to see more than a portion of his body, and I fired as soon as the shoulder was visible. He crashed through the underwood and passed out of sight. Slipping in another cartridge, I pressed forward and caught sight of a massive body swaying about the stems of the

young trees. Once more I fired, and I was so confident of success that I turned and waved my cap to my companion, but when I turned again the stag had disappeared. When Nikola came up he sought for blood, and, finding none, made a deprecatory motion with his hands, implying that the stag might be in the next parish. But he lay there within five yards, a most ancient and venerable beast. His mask grizzled with age, blind of one eye, his teeth worn down, and his body a bag of bones, he still carried a grand head of eighteen points, of which, thirteen were on the 'tops.' Under the circumstances I hope I may be excused if I 'roar somewhat on my own account. For the benefit of the initiated, then, I may mention that the tape shows the length along the curve to be 52 inches, while the weight of the horns, with part of the skull, is 20 lbs. 8 ozs.-dimensions which are certainly not often surpassed. His weight, in pieces, was 36 stone, but he was much run down, and would undoubtedly have scaled much heavier at the beginning of the season. As is the custom, the antlers were compared with others in Vienna, and these were adjudged to be the best obtained this year in Austria or Poland. It may have been surpassed by one or two Hungarian heads with which it was not compared. A good authority afterwards put this stag's age at fifty years; but, however that may be, I had undoubtedly secured 'a first-class head,' and I had been doubly lucky in finding such a patriarch, still roaring lustily on the 3rd of October, and in reaching him just before it got too dark to shoot.

It was now five o'clock and we had to leave the stag, as he was, lest we should be overtaken by darkness before we had escaped from the chaos which lay behind us. As it was I found the back track in cold blood not less arduous than it had seemed with the passion of the chase upon me.

And now that I had crowned my previous good fortune I would not tempt the kindly dame further, but rejoined my friends, who had already abandoned the quest, and with them combined for a bear hunt, but that is not to be named in the same day with the regal pursuit which I have endeavoured to describe.

E. N. BUXTON.