"THE MOOR AND THE LOCH" 231 



of buck-shot point-blank into the shoulders of the 

 marauders. The deer did not multiply as they do 

 now. They were always on the watch as they snatched 

 at the herbage, and lay down to sleep with one eye 

 open. They were hounded about by yelping collies, 

 and got the wind of roving Highland laddies, till they 

 became preternaturally wild and restless. But then 

 there were " harts of grease " which attained enormous 

 size and carried portentous heads with wide-spreading 

 antlers that made them notorious over the range of the 

 surrounding districts. To circumvent one of these 

 suspicious veterans, you had to be versed like Donald 

 Caird in " the wiles of dun-deer stalking " ; and the 

 stalk was made more difficult by a cordon of feathered 

 sentinels who were always on the look-out to give the 

 quarry the alarm. There was no systematic killing 

 down of the grouse who keep their eye on each 

 movement of the stalker, and rise with their warning 

 note at the moment when he is counting his chickens. 

 It is not so many years ago since St. John described 

 how he spent three days on the hills of Morayshire 

 in pursuit of " the muckle hart of Benmore." Now 

 the regular forests are so many patrolled sanctuaries 

 where all profane intrusion is forbidden. The land has 

 trebled and quadrupled in value, though the grazing 

 rents have been sacrificed. The deer have increased 

 till the forests are over-stocked, and slaughtering them 

 has become comparatively a certainty ; but though well- 

 laden ponies may follow you home when you are hurry- 

 ing back to the lodge for the dinner-hour, yet the 



