DEER-STALKING AND COURSING 



rushed with apparently full vigour down the hill, Down they 

 came towards the burn, the dog not five yards behind the stag, 

 but unable to reach his shoulder (the place where he always 

 struck his game). In a few minutes deer and hound went 

 headlong and seemingly both together into the burn. Donald 

 appeared running like a lunatic : with good judgment he had, 

 when I left him, gone to cut off the deer in case I wounded one 

 and it took up the hill. As good luck would have it, the hinds 

 had led off the stag right up to where Donald and Bran were, 

 notwithstanding his inclination to go the other way. 



' I ran to see what had become of them in the burn, expect- 

 ing to find the stag at bay. When I got there, however, it was 

 all over. The deer had probably tumbled from weakness, and 

 Bran had got his fangs well into the throat of the poor brute 

 before he could rise again. The gallant dog, when I was up 

 with him, lay down panting, with his fore-paws on the deer, 

 and wagging his tail, seemed to congratulate me on my 

 victory, and to expect to be caressed for his share in it. A 

 fine stag he was, in perfect order, with noble antlers. Donald 

 added to my satisfaction by applauding my manner of getting 

 up to him, adding that he never would have thought it possible 

 to kill a stag on such bare and flat ground. Little did I feel 

 the fatigue of our three hours' walk, two of them in the dark 

 and hard rain. 



' We did not go home, but went to a shepherd's house, 

 whose inhabitants were at evening prayer when we arrived : 

 we did not interrupt them, but afterwards the wife prepared 

 us a capital supper of eggs and fresh trout, which we devoured 

 with vast relish before the bright peat-fire, our wet clothes 

 steaming like a boiler. Such was the death of my first stag.' 



Changed conditions brought about the disappearance of 

 the deerhound from the side of the stalker. In the old days 

 forests were comparatively few, but deer in small groups of six 

 or eight were to be found, says Captain Ross, scattered over 

 the higher mountains throughout Scotland. It did not greatly 

 matter if so small a party were disturbed ; therefore, if a stalker 



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