ON SHOOTING. 197 



his flesh is almost unequalled. The use of a much less 

 powerful rifle is desirable for another reason, i.e., safety to 

 stray humans ; but you want to acquire confidence in your 

 stalking weapon proper. Use it therefore with the greatest 

 care. For this wood stalking a binocular or monocular 

 of the prismatic type is far handier than a telescope, the 

 constant adjustment of which absorbs valuable moments. 

 The former can be carried uncased and with focus fixed if 

 necessary by varnish, slung round the neck and resting in 

 the breast pocket. The monocular is particularly handy, 

 and even for open hill stalking can with advantage supple- 

 ment the telescope for close work ; situations often arise 

 when the latter cannot be used with due regard to speed 

 and concealment. On sunny days the glint on the telescope 

 may give you away, while in normal — i.e., wet weather — the 

 monocular will long outlast his big brother. But the 

 " glass " is the proper instrument for spying, and its skilful 

 employment is only less important than that of the rifle, 

 in that you may, and at first must, depute the business to 

 a professional eye : just because that business savours to 

 you of magic, you will be the more anxious to understand 

 something of it. Therefore, familiarise yourself to some 

 extent with the use of the telescope before you ever go 

 stalking. Possibly you may have done this already on 

 other, but not nobler, quarry. The professional hill man 

 came to his own in the War, occasioning, it is whispered, 

 no little jealousy on the part of his less long-sighted comrades 

 in arms. To a beginner it is usually difficult to pick up an 

 object of which the position is described to him, and infinitely 

 more so to spot such object at first hand ; while even this 

 difficulty is as nothing compared to the task of making sure 

 of your ground preparatory to a stalk, i.e., satisfying yourself 

 that no tip of horn or ear betrays the presence of a deer 

 either in your path or on some vantage ground commanding 

 your line of approach ; and it is from the deer lying down, 

 particularly some motionless hind, assimilating in colour 

 so hopelessly with the colour of her background, that you 

 have most to fear : no question of feeding interrupts her 

 vigil. Not very many stalks are spoilt by the beast actually 

 stalked spotting the enemy. Do not draw the stalker's 



