Chamois hunter

“ There are sometimes bitter fights, too, between the male chamois, terrible contests for leadership. Grappling each other with their horns, they battle until the superiority of strength is decided.
The chamois is very shy, and is always on the alert. Its sense of hearing, of smell, and of sight is very acute, and the most skillful hunter will sometimes search the mountain pastures for days without securing his game. When the troop is grazing, a sentinel is always appointed, who stands on the watch sniffing the air. ”

“ Lauener at first supposed they were chamois hunters; but a moment’s reflection convinced the party that no hunter would seek his prey on such unlikely ground. Moreover, chamois hunters do not usually carry on their 126 backs “a young fir-tree, branches, leaves, and all.” They lost sight of the party and continued their meal. They next saw the two strangers on the snow slopes ahead, making all haste to be the first on the summit. ”

“ The herdsman must leave you,
The summer is o'er.
CHAMOIS HUNTER (appearing on the top of a cliff)
Second Variation of the Ranz des Vaches
On the heights peals the thunder, and trembles the bridge,
The huntsman bounds on by the dizzying ridge.
Undaunted he hies him
O'er ice-covered wild,
Where leaf never budded,
Nor Spring ever smiled;
And beneath him an ocean of mist, where his eye
No longer the dwellings of man can espy;
Through the parting clouds only
The earth can be seen;
Far down 'neath the vapor
The meadows of green. ”

“ They could never be properly trained; for although the chamois do not in the least mind the clattering of stones or gravel, any unusual sound immediately attracts their attention. A solitary hunter has only to avoid this, and to take care that the wind blows in his face, or, at least, not from him in the direction where he expects to find them. ”

“ The pursuit of the chamois will often lead him to the narrowest boundaries between life and death, to overhanging cliffs, and across gorges where even the falling of a bit of turf or the loosening of a stone would be fatal. Up, up, the hunter must go in search of the cunning game, until lost among the cliffs, and blinded by the thick mists which appear as clouds to those in the valley below, he may often wander in the trackless solitudes for days, with the terrible roar of avalanches sounding in his ears, before being able to return to his home. ”

“ The chamois is one of the most active of all living animals, leaping from rock to rock, and skipping up and down steep cliffs, where it would seem quite impossible for it to obtain any foothold at all. It will often spring down, too, from a very great height, never seeming to injure itself and always alighting upon its feet. And as it is very sharp-sighted and exceedingly wary, a hunter finds the utmost difficulty in approaching, and very often for days together he never has the chance of obtaining a shot. ”

“ Now among these four footed inhabitants of the high places near the sky, the white chamois is the king of the herds and the pet of the dwarfs. No hunter can kill this leader, for he is the property of the fairies. After a man has shot his hundredth animal, the white chamois appears, to give him warning to stop killing his fellow creatures. This king of the hook-horns can leap, as if it were flying, over chasms. It moves through the deep snows far faster than the strongest man in the land. ”

“ But proud as is the returning hunter of the beautiful chamois horns hung upon his saddle-bow, it could scarcely be otherwise than that the soul of one so smitten with the love of natural scenery as was Schamyl, should here be more occupied with contemplating the grandeur of the mountain tops than in chasing the timid, graceful animals which thereupon find a home. ”

“ Often the hunter, overtaken by a dark mist, loses himself amongst the ice, and dies of cold and hunger; or the rain renders the rocks so slippery, that he is not able to reascend them. In the midst of eternal snows, braving all dangers, they follow the chamois frequently by the marks of their feet; when one is perceived at a distance, the hunter creeps along till within reach of his gun, which he rests on a rock, and is almost always sure of his prey: thus the innocent beast, which tranquilly feeds, perhaps enjoys the last moments of its happy existence. ”

“ The chamois climbs up among the highest rocks and precipices to feed upon the grass which grows there in the little nooks and corners. The chamois hunters climb up these after him. They take guns with them, in order to shoot the chamois when they see one. But sometimes it is difficult for them to get the game when they have killed it, as we see in this engraving. The hunters [20] were on one side of a chasm and the chamois on the other, and though he has fallen dead upon the rocks, they can not easily reach him. ”

“ Caucasian chamois is generally found fairly low down, just above timber limit, or in summer round the lower edges of the glaciers. There is seldom a day in the mountains when the hunter will not hear that long whistle so strangely human in its note, and, turning, find that he has been detected by the mountain sentinel. In Svânetia I have seen chamois in large herds (one herd which I remember numbered at least fifty head) , and every ‘sakli’ has its crevices or its roof adorned with the little black horns.
But the tûr is the mountain beast, par excellence, of the Caucasus. ”

“ The chace of these animals is very laborious, and dogs are almost useless in it. It is likewise very dangerous, for the animal finding himself hard pushed will turn and strike the hunter with his head, and sometimes throw him over a precipice. The chamois is as swift, though not so strong, as the wild goats; they are more numerous, and commonly go in herds; they are not, however, so numerous as they were formerly, at least in our Alpine and Pyrenean mountains. ”

“ Just a second or two, before this baby avalanche seemed to have lost both its head and its path, to go aside and play in the deep valley below, there was a hunter, on one side of the ravine, who had climbed up the high rocks, to get a shot at a herd of chamois that were feeding quietly on the other side.
Besides the buck or daddy chamois there were four mothers, each with a pretty little kid, hardly two months old, beside her. Now it was not the season for hunting, and it was against the law, which allowed the mother chamois a quiet interval, and the kids, time to grow up ”

“ Chamois-hunting, the sporting specialty of the Swiss and the Tyrolese, appears to be dying out. The hunter of our day keeps it up rather as a tradition than as a practical pursuit. He rarely bags a "goat," for goats are very few to bag, and those few even more supernaturally fleet and sure of foot and keen of nose than their less-hunted ancestors. ”

“ The Chamois, which is classed by many among [Pg 364] goats, in some degree approaches the antelopes. Its horns shoot straight up, and then at the tips turn suddenly back, like a fish hook; it frequents all the mountain chains of Europe and western Asia; in summer climbing to the highest summits, and displaying the most daring agility. In the winter it comes down just below the regions of perpetual snow, for the sake of nourishment. Its smell, sight, and hearing, are very acute, and it will detect the approach of a hunter at the distance of half a league. ”

“ The very old chamois, with beards, often live alone and off by themselves. So the dwarfs and chamois are much alike, in this respect, that they are both chin choppers, in having hair growing, [237] like a tuft, under their chins, and both are able to whistle. For, when a hunter comes near and the wind blows from him to them, the sentinel, or watchman of the herd gives the alarm, by means of a short shrill sound. ”

“ Mother of light! how fairly dost thou go
Over those hoary crests, divinely led!—
Art thou that huntress of the silver bow,
Fabled of old? Or rather dost thou tread
Those cloudy summits thence to gaze below,
Like the wild Chamois from her Alpine snow,
Where hunter never climb'd,—secure from dread? ”

“ The saying that more chamois-hunters are killed while engaged in their favourite sport than die a natural death has, unfortunately, a good deal of truth in it. Sometimes the chasseur, overcome by fatigue, falls asleep in some cold and exposed spot, never to wake again. Sometimes he is mortally wounded by falling stones, or struck by lightning in a thunderstorm. Often he is killed by avalanches, and if, when on difficult ground far from home, he is overtaken by a thick fog, his position becomes most perilous. He may wander for hours without nearing the valley ”

“ Some writers have pretended that they use their horns for climbing and descending the precipices. I have seen and killed many of these animals, but I never saw them use their horns for that purpose, nor have I ever found any hunter who could confirm this assertion. The chamois ascends and descends precipices with great ease, by the agility and strength of his legs, which are very long; the hind ones being somewhat the longest and always crooked, assist them in throwing themselves forwards, and are of great service by breaking the force of the fall. ”

“ The chamois-hunters of the region not only delighted in this venturesome sport, but prided themselves upon constantly adding new victims to their hunting record, which was always kept with scrupulous care. Some of these men, wandering up to almost inaccessible heights, are said to have encountered there dainty, mist-like Alpine fairies, who guided them safely over dangerous places, watched over their slumbers when they rested exhausted at the edge of frightful precipices, and often whispered wonderful dream tales into their drowsy ears. ”

“ They belong exclusively to the Old Continent. These animals are very wild. The precipitousness and lofty elevation of their pasture-grounds render their chase a matter of peril. The same may be said of the Chamois, or Isard, which inhabits the loftiest ridges of the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the mountains of Greece. Dogs are of no avail in hunting these animals. In Asia the falcon is employed in capturing the bouquetin. In Europe the chamois-hunters are excellent marksmen—indefatigable, fearless, capable of great endurance, keen, and vigilant. ”

“ Chamois-shooting is most successfully pursued when a number of hunters form a circle round a favourite feeding ground, which they gradually narrow; the animals, scenting the hunters to windward, fly in the opposite direction, only to encounter those coming from leeward. ”

“ This is a splendid fellow, with long and strong horns but no beard. It used to be very common, but has been shot at so much that very few are left. The Chamois of the Alps is an antelope, but is much like the goat, and is a wonderful jumper. It thinks nothing of leaping over a ravine sixteen or eighteen feet wide, or over a wall fourteen feet high, or of running up and down very steep hills. But the hunters have killed most of these animals also. They think it fine sport to shoot a poor chamois and let it fall to die in a deep abyss where no one can reach it to get its body. ”

“ Must we omit this graceful ruminant from the number of mammals inhabiting the eternal snows? No; for it is not of his own will that the chamois has taken refuge upon the snowy peaks of the Alps. If we meet with him there, it is because he seeks to shelter himself from the destructive instincts of man.
The chamois is one of those animal species which, before a century, perhaps, will have disappeared; his bones will then figure in the palæontological museums by the side of the skeletons of extinct species. ”

“ It is altogether wonderfully equipped by nature for its habitat, and the sport which seeks its life is fair because the animal has a good chance of outwitting its pursuer. The chamois live in herds and are usually guarded by a sentinel who gives the alarm at the faintest disturbance; they feed in summer on flowers and herbs, and in winter on the young shoots of the pines and firs. There are large preserves in the Tyrol kept by wealthy men for their own hunting. ”

“ Like most other mountain ungulates, the Chamois dwell high in summer, and in winter they seek lower and more sheltered situations. They are exceedingly wary and agile, and sure-footed on dangerous ground. ”

“ In winter they descend to the wooded districts that immediately succeed the region of glaciers, and it is there only they can be successfully hunted. Chamois are exceedingly shy; and their senses, especially those of sight and smell, very acute. The herd never feeds without having a sentinel posted on some prominence to give notice of the approach of danger; which is done by stamping on the ground with the forefeet, and uttering a shrill whistling note, thus putting the entire herd on the alert. ”

“ Never from that hour was the tame chamois seen on the slopes of the Scheideck, but its bell was often heard by the hunters ringing among the wild solitudes of the Wetterhorn.
It is only when the chamois has lost, through disease, that amount of intelligence with which it is gifted by nature that it will abandon its mountain home and seek the haunts of man. ”

“ Their hard consolidated surface affords an agreeable path, and enables the explorer to avoid the rough boulders and advance rapidly towards the barrier of mingled rock and snow which closes the view. We had here an encounter with seventeen chamois, who were feeding above us, until, disturbed by our shouts, they scampered off among the wild crags which separated us from Val del Sasso. Only once, in the Graians, had I seen a larger 113 herd; but a meeting with small families of three or four is to the climber a matter of daily occurrence. ”