The Penn's Grove record., 1882-03-04
Shooting Chamois.

To tell a buck from a barren doe In
early autumn at any but the shortest
distance requires long practice, and
even then mistakes not unfreqHently
occur for the latter have also q most
misleading propensity to sneaking
about alone, and at the season of the
year OF which / speak resemble the
bucks in ali but the position of the
horns, which very slight difference
can, of course, only be detected when
the animal is quite close. Only the
day before / had killed a barren doe,
misteking her for n buck, and though
they are perfectly legitimate game,
yet It is always the ambition of the
cognoscenti to kill only bucks.
My glass assures me, however, that
not only is the animal a buck, but the
large size Of the horns ranks him un-
questfonsbly among the very largest
the so-called "capitals-bocke." / let
him proceed half way down the gully,
bringing, meanwhile, my rife very
slowly up to the shoulder. Here he
halts, apparently to survey for the last
time the ground before he makes his
rush. This is the desirable moment ;
and, though the buck will get a nasty
tumble of some sixty OF seventy feet,
for he has barely enough footing. 1
prefer a long and steady shot to a
much closer running one.
My "express'--the same that in the
far West has rolled over, IN not dis
similarly wild surroundings, many a
proud bighorn-gives forth it's loud
report, and the solid bullet q prefera-
BILE missile to the usual expanding
bullet for such s~mall.game as chamois),
propelled by what Continental sports
men consider a terribly large charge,
1. e., 81 drains, pierces rs l afterward
discover, the wary old fellow from end
to end, sending him, his legs turned
upward, to the bottom of the preci-
pice, where he lands with a dull crash,
Twice more do 1 shoot at channels
coming singly down the gully, and
from precisely the same fatal spot does
my quarry take its headlong plunge.
The last head, however, coming
quicker than the preceding ones, the
beaters being by this time close be-
hind, makes an examination with my
glasses impossible and go, to my cha
grin, 1 find when all Is over that my
last victim is a barren doe.
BY this time the drive is drawing to
. close, and wherever n looks one
secs, generally in the most impossible
places, heaters descending from the
heights above. AS watches no W
one then the other edging, bsrefooted,
along fsarfully marrow bands of rock,
terrible abysses yswning at their side.
one cannot fail to see that these men
are not moved so much by the poor
pay (about half a crown per diem as
by the inherent love for sport, to fol-
low such an exceedingly dangerous
vocation, while they could earn as
much, if not more, in their ordinary
calling,
The results OF the drive when, after
the numerous reports of the keepers
had been heard, m could form a
correct estimate were the following
About ninety channels were in the
drive to start with. About forty broke
back through the line of the beatert
or escaped at the slider, while the rest
came to the four guns, who, with
thirty one shots, killed eleven head
namely sever bucks TALL, with the
exception Of my first one of moderate
sise), three barren does, and, unfor
tunately, also n mother doe, who
having lost her kid In thefrantic rush
appeared quite alone, and hence, being
mistaken for q puck or a barren doe
paid with her life her unmatronly
conduct.