3 io WINTER IN THE NORTH 



Even had our force been drilled and trained to work 

 together, it would be no easy matter to handle it 

 cleverly. The very retrievers at heel sometimes 

 " come a cropper " in scrambling down the sides of 

 ravines ; and should a cock be flushed while you are 

 setting your face to the " stey brae/' the bird is sure to 

 go away unscathed. Moreover, though there is no 

 snow to speak of, each stone and root is varnished over 

 with its coating of treacherous ice, that gives hold 

 neither to foot nor hand. But there seems to be a 

 providence that saves sportsmen from sprained ankles, 

 and each fall is only a subject for merriment, though 

 the occasional plunge over mid-thigh in a " moss-pit " 

 is a more serious matter. But soon the shooting begins, 

 and the bag mounts ; the roe have been bled and hung 

 to trees to be retrieved again ; and in spite of 

 immersions, scratches, and falls, beaters and guns are 

 in the highest spirits. Brief space is given for lunch, 

 since days are short and distances are considerable. 

 And we have yet to beat out the famous oak-coppice 

 that hangs upon the side of an almost precipitous 

 valley. How the beaters are to work their way along, 

 where even monkeys with prehensile tails might be 

 puzzled, is for their consideration. They scramble 

 in somehow at the one end in faith, and we trust that 

 they will struggle out at the other. Close beating is a 

 sheer impossibility : but it is hoped that the game, being 

 seldom disturbed, may rise or go forward in place of 

 running back. It is almost worth coming all the way 

 to Loch Fyne to have a single shot at an old blackcock 



