CHAPTER IX 

 DEER-STALKING 



Deer-stalking about a hundred years ago is thus 

 described by my uncle : 



*' My father never was young enough in my days 

 to become a deer-stalker, although he was very heavy 

 on Kate Archy's venison collops and loved a fat haunch, 

 so one day, when I was about fourteen, says he : * John, 

 can't you and Suter go to Bathais Bheinn to-morrow 

 and try and get a deer V Strange to say, Suter was not 

 a native, but from the Findhorn country in Morayshire, 

 and never saw a deer before. Neither had I much ex- 

 perience in stalking — Hector Cameron, predecessor to 

 Suter, who had been promoted to Loch Luichart estate, 

 always killing what venison we required. Suter's father 

 (a poacher, I fear) was actually drowned by a salmon 

 in the Findhorn River. There is a fall there where 

 salmon are seen constantly leaping to get up, and some 

 did and many did not. There was a narrow ledge or 

 shelf of rock where, if one could reach it and the river 

 was in proper trim, one could stand so near to the fish 

 when they leaped that a look-alive fisher could whip 

 them out of the spray with a gafi or clip-hook. Old 

 Suter had got on the ledge when, unfortunately, an 

 extra heavy salmon sprang in the spray and was in- 

 stantly gaffed, but so heavy was it that Suter could not 



128 



