Memories of Highland Stalkers 



emphasis with which the last two words were spoken was 

 sufficient guarantee of the contempt they conveyed. 



The tourist on the hills is generally looked upon with 

 suspicion and a tinge of contempt by the stalker. Once 

 I noticed two forms in the distance. The stalker who was 

 with me looked at them a moment through the glass, then put 

 back his telescope into its case, uttering as he did so a single 

 word, and full of meaning. "Towerists," he grunted, show- 

 ing clearly that such unfortunate beings were utterly beneath 

 his notice. 



During the spring meeting of a certain Alpine club 

 on the Cairngorms, the ascent of Cairn Toul (4,241 feet) 

 was attempted during a wild day, with a northerly gale 

 and heavy snow squalls. The mountaineers encountered 

 Arctic conditions on the hill, and had to cut their way 

 step by step up the precipitous face. Between the storms 

 of snow they could be seen clinging like ants to the hill, and 

 finally reached the slimmit in a blizzard so terrific that 

 they could scarcely draw breath. The feat was regarded as 

 an extremely noteworthy one, so that the stalker who, 

 after hearing full details of the climb, mildly stated "that 

 he could well believe it was rather airish on the top " seemed 

 to those who heard him to have certainly put things in a way 

 free from even the slightest suspicion of exaggeration. 



At the fall of the year the hills surround themselves 

 with a certain quietness and mystery. With the coming 

 of darkness the roaring of many stags breaks the silence. 

 So intent are they in throwing out their husky challenges 

 that in the dusk it is possible to approach to within a couple 

 of hundred yards of them. A fight in grim earnest be- 

 tween two stags is of rare occurrence. Encounters, half 

 serious, half playful, are numerous; but no stalker with 

 whom I have spoken has ever witnessed a battle to the 

 death. A veteran keeper had, indeed, on one occasion 

 come across a stag still warm, and bearing the marks of the 

 antlers of his adversary where the fatal wound had been dealt. 



F 65 



