Emperor William as a Sportsman.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 39, 1 March 1884, Page 4

Emperor William as a Sportsman.

Some truly wonderful accounts have recently been transmitted from Germany of the sporting achievements of the Emperor and of Prince William. His Majesty is reported to have slain forty deer and wild boars in a day, while at Neuberg his grandson brought down seventeen chamois in one day, a bag which obtained for him the congratulations of the Emperor of Austria, which, however, Mere probably ironical. Chamois-hunting among the Alps is, perhaps, the most exciting sport that can be found in Europe, except bear-shooting, th surroundings of which, however, are of an entirely different character. But. people who suppose that Prince William and his party chased the chamois in the good old fashion are vastly mistaken. The fact is that these chamois are almost tarn© animals, as the"y are kept in a park, and when there is a battue the sportsmen take their stand at the end of a defile, and the luckless animals are driven through it by a regiment of drivers, literally passing within a few yards, so that it is a wonder that they are not blown to pieces. Each royal and noble sportsman has three jiiger to load their rifles. When^ the butchery is over, the .dead chamois are hoisted into carts, and conveyed to the courtyard of the Schloss, where they are laid out upon pine-branches, and the jager attend in the evening with lighted torches* when |the hunters come out after dinner to inspect their Jbag v The Emperor of Austria disdains thilfburlesque of sport, and usually goes oui^alone before sunrise,, attended by f^, a^single jager, with whoih he penetrates the most remote glens- T and valleys. <> He - is ' probably the finest game shot in Europe; ' The German' Emperor has the beasts .driven; » past him as he sits in an easy-chair. — .* Truth," ' --