404 



TJic Country Gcntkviaiis Magazine 



f)tmtm9, Jtehing, ant) ^hooting. 



DEER DRIVING IN MULL. 



SECOND DAY. 



BY THE SPORTING CONTRIBUTOR OF " THE FARMER." 



OUR second Mull season began as pros- wind, we had to make a considerable circuit 

 perously as the first, but we had the 

 advantage of another gun, both my sons hav 



ing got a fortnight's leave from their regmients. 

 Before settling to regular work, the " green 

 hand " had the honour of drawing first blood, 

 by killing a hart of 14 stone, at a scrambling 

 afternoon beat of Torlochan wood. It was 

 a snap in the thick of the trees with an S.S.G. 

 cartridge, and the only shot fired that day. 



Our plan was to give several days first to 

 Scalastal, reserving the last week for Glen- 

 forsa, as a honne bouche. 



It was the first week of October, and the 

 stags had given notice by some trumpet 

 blasts that the season of warfare was at hand. 

 The Scalastal overseer told us they came 

 down after nightfall to feed on a field of tur- 

 nips close to the farm-house, and one of 

 them for the last few nights had been " roar- 

 ing like mad." I was seated by a good fire 

 reading, v/hen the man popped in his head 

 to say that the stag was " at it again," and 

 urging me to come out and hear his defiant 

 music. The sudden change from the bright 

 and comfortable glare of the fire and candles 

 to the solemn gloom of a moonless and star- 

 less night, whose silence was only broken by 

 occasional bellowings of the stag, suggested 

 to one's fancy an Indian prairie or African 

 desert rather than one of our own Hebrides 

 covered ^vith its brown heath and shaggy 

 wood. 



When the grieve thought my metde was up 

 for a shot, he slily observed that a fowling- 

 piece loaded with buck-shot might hit them 

 even in so dark a night, and felt confident 

 that he could grope his way to the gap in the 

 wall where the deer entered to '•'spoil! the 

 neeps," and by which they also retreated 

 when satisfied. To prevent them getting our 



through rough hill ground, to clamber over a 

 high fence, and, worst of all, to cross Sca- 

 lastal brook. Had I not been confident the 

 man could find his way blindfold, I should 

 certainly have declined the whole thing. No 

 sooner had we quitted the outer door into 

 the black still darkness, than I felt powerless 

 as a child. The overseer, however, was alert 

 enough. First tracing a sheep-path to guide 

 him to the fence, which he followed down 

 until he discovered the rude steps he sought, 

 then listening for the brook, he rather anxi- 

 ously whispered, " if we were but through the 

 burn," and led the way. The burn was full 

 of large stones, deep linns, and swollen by 

 recent rain ; but by finding the ford we 

 managed to scramble through, about knee 

 deep. Guided by the bellowing of the deer 

 (for we now distinguished more than one 

 roaring), the gap in the turnip field was easily 

 found, and I was quickly squatted so as to 

 have the quarry between me and the sky 

 when steadying themselves for the leap down 

 from the field into the moor. My sons and 

 the shepherds had to move them from the 

 lower end, where they were now feeding, and 

 when they reached the gap they would be 

 about ten paces from my ambush. A few 

 minutes of suspense, and we heard the rush 

 of the deer bounding in our direction. They 

 halted with only the wall between us. Every 

 moment I expected a dark figure on the sky- 

 line, but they seemed bent on trying our 

 patience. Only when the drivers were close 

 on them did they deign to move, and then, 

 instead of their convenient egress, wandered 

 alongside the wall and made an uncomfort- 

 able exit at the burn ! The wind being all 

 right, it was impossible they could either 

 have smelt, seen, or heard us, and we could 



