Note 5 — BRUTE LIFE IN THE ALPINE REGIONS.[2]

Such, at least, appears to be the case in the canton of Uri, (vide Tschudi, p. 365), but probably the regulation is not common to all the cantons; for at page 372 we find a friend of the doctor’s chamois-hunting in the Grisons in the month of June, and meeting professional chamois-hunters out after game. The following passage is worth quoting: “In the canton of Glarus the chamois has possessed, for many centuries, a free and protected refuge. The ordinances that the valleys and mountains situated between the Linth and the Sernf, as far as Frugmatt, should be ‘free mountains’ for chamois and all Alpine game, and that no one should shoot, or even carry a gun within those limits, date as far back as the fifteenth century. At times other mountain districts have been in a like manner protected, and the game greatly increased. Eight sworn hunters, appointed by the authorities, had orders to shoot, in the ‘free mountains’ between Jacobi and Martini, two chamois for every citizen of the canton who got married at that time, one chamois annually for the landammann, two for the burgomaster of Zurich, &c. With these exceptions, they were forbidden to shoot a single head of game in the fence-districts. In modern times, these wholesome regulations have ceased to be enforced. The canton of St Gall also possesses, in our day, preserved districts.”—Tschudi, p. 350–1.