TJic Country Gcntkvians Magazine 



crack rifleman — at the target. One calm 

 summer day, soon after his taking possession, 

 a wood-cutter, in passing through Garrocliree 

 wood, spied a [pair of antlers peering out 

 above the low whins. Shrewdly suspecting 

 the owner of the horns could not be far oif, 

 the man of the axe went to Glenforsa house 



and apprised Mr of his discover)\ The 



eight barrels were soon shotted, and the rifle- 

 man, guided by the woodman and accom- 

 panied by the farm grieve (who told me the 

 above particulars), was soon close to the stag's 

 lair. The rifleman was perfectly concealed, 

 and to increase his chances of success the 

 deer had risen, and, all unconscious of peril, 

 was cropping the rich grass A^-ithin point 

 blank range. The eight barrels were levelled; 

 barrel i, the stag started ; barrel 2, looked 

 about to see where the noise came from ; 

 barrel 3, walked a few paces and then lis- 

 tened ; barrel 4, shook his head and looked 

 towards the enemy; barrel 5, the stag, 

 like a determined duellist, having accepted 

 five shots, thought he had done enough to 

 prove his courage, and resolved never to 

 stand fire again. 



Our men and dogs ha^-ing been quite done 



up by severe work, we gave them a day's 

 rest, to enable them to do justice to our 

 last deer hunt of the season. But the wind 

 was " wTong" for our final day. No deer 

 consequently in Knock wood — not a track in 

 Torlochan — the evening fast closing in, and 

 our only hope the rugged jungle of Gar- 

 rochree. To humour the Tvind and command 

 a view of the hunt, we occupied the high 

 passes, but, after the morning failures, had 

 about equal hope of moving a rhinoceros as a 

 red-deer. I was listlessly looking at the men 

 taking ground ere they threw the dogs into 

 the thicket, when my eye picked up a deer 

 slowly threading a devious course, but e%-i- 

 dently making for the open hill. With keen 

 interest I watched its many wapvard angles 

 and wheels, when suddenly halting and cast- 

 ing a glance at the baffled dogs and men, it 

 stalked into the bare ground — a majestic 

 royal stag. Choosing the pass immediately 

 beyond those where we were concealed, and 

 bringing his noble profile into full relief 

 against the evening sky, he disappeared 

 leisurely over the ridge of the hill. This was 

 the first time I saw the " Garrochree stag," 

 but it was not the last. 



THE twelfth: 



THE " Twelfth " is almost \\-itliin sight, and we are 

 in perfect ignorance as to what the yield of our 

 chief moors is likely to be. There are people who say 

 that the birds are " more numerous than ever," but we 

 cannot beheve them, ^^^lo in the face of what we now 

 know of last year's grouse plague could credit such a 

 statement ? The devastation was so great that we had 

 some expectation that a jubilee would this year be 

 proclaimed by the large o\vners of grouse ground. In 

 former years it was no uncommon circumstance for the 

 birds to obtain a jubilee, which must have been 

 exceedingly distasteful to those persons who hold that 

 all the ills that grouse are heir to result from the moors 

 being overstocked. This theory, which has been well 



■ Abridged from the Edinburgh Coitrant. 



ventilated of late, is gaining a few converts ; but we 

 shall never be numbered among them. When some 

 authentic statement is given on the subject of moor 

 economy — when we know with some approach to 

 exactitude how many brace of grouse can be bred and 

 fed on each acre of groimd, and how many of the 

 birds may be safely killed — we shall then be in a better 

 position to determine whether or not there is any 

 foundation for the theory of overbreeding. When we 

 consider the remorselessly logical way that nature 

 keeps up a perfect balance among all animate things 

 and gives the shooting into the bargain, we have no 

 alternative but to throw aside the overgrowth theory. 



The army of sportsmen that will render the lonely 

 moor-grounds populous on the " twelfth," forbids the 

 slightest hope being held out that our grouse will ever 



