The interior of the hut had a droll appearance.  Bacon, sausages, meal-bags, and various other things were hanging from pegs fastened into the supports of the roof; and the gear belonging to ten sportsmen were stowed away somehow.  The place might have passed for the head-centre of a band of brigands.

The mountain on which we were encamped forms part of the western side of a long valley, at the bottom of which, quite 2000 feet below us, is a magnificent trout-stream.  The sides of this valley are clothed with dense forests, with broken cliffs obtruding in places.  The height of the Carpathians in this part of the range must not be taken as a gauge of the scenery, which quite equals in grandeur the higher Alps in many parts of Switzerland and the Tyrol.  Comparisons are dangerous, for the lovers of Switzerland will silence me with glaciers and eternal snow; these advantages I must concede, still contending, however, for the extreme beauty and wildness of the Southern Carpathians.  The characteristics of the scenery are due to the broken forms of the crystalline rocks, the singular occurrence of sharp limestone ridges, and the deep forest-clad valleys, traversed by mountain torrents, which everywhere diversify the scene.

[Footnote 11:  The Ibis, vol. v., 1875.  The Birds of Transylvania.  By Messrs. Danford and Brown.]

CHAPTER XI.

Chamois and bear hunting—­First battue—­Luxurious dinner 5000 feet above the sea-level—­Storm in the night—­Discomforts—­The bear’s supper—­The eagle’s breakfast—­Second and third day’s shooting—­Baking a friend as a cure for fever—­Striking camp—­View into Roumania.

We started for our first battue in capital time, taking with us a crowd of Wallack beaters.  Our places were appointed to us by the director of the hunt, and some of us had a stiffish climb before reaching the spot indicated.  At a right angle to this valley there protrudes one of those characteristic limestone ridges; it terminates in an abrupt precipice or declivity above the stream.  My place was some half-way up, a good position; for while I could see the course of the stream, I could command a fair range of ground above me.

It was impossible not to take note of the exquisite beauty of the whole scene, particularly as it then appeared.  The sun breaking through the clouds, threw his sharply-defined rays of light into the depths of the misty defile, playing upon the foam of the water, and giving life and colour to the hanging woods.  I hardly took it in at the time, but rather remembered the details afterwards; for my thoughts were occupied in trying to judge the distance up to which I might fire with any chance of success—­distances are always very deceptive on the mountains.

I must observe that we hoped to get a shot at some bears, but the chamois were the legitimate object of the hunt.  The late autumn or early winter is the best time for bear-hunting.