IN THE HIGHLANDS 131 



Fraser, Kate Archy's son, with orders to go with all 

 speed and bring home the corpse. I have killed and seen 

 many a good stag since then, but never was a stag like 

 my number one, passing twenty-five stone, clean and 

 white inside as a prize bullock. Hurrah ! my stag had 

 twelve points (he was royal), and is now hanging up on 

 my staircase. My last stag, shot in Glencannich, had 

 thirteen points, all clean, but was under twenty stone. 

 " I had a hard day once with a fine stag in Coire 

 Ruadh Stac of Beinn Eighe of Kenlochewe. I started 

 with a lad and prog (food) for two days, and we roosted 

 at Uaimh Bhraotaig under the big stone there, having 

 seen nothing the first day. We were young, rash stalkers, 

 and next morning started a fine stag, which galloped 

 off towards Coire Euadh Stac, about two miles off. 

 Now, that corrie is a cul-de-sac, its upper end being one 

 sheet of white quartz gravel about one thousand feet 

 to the top of the hill, in which man or beast would sink 

 deep every step. I had never before seen a deer in that 

 grand corrie. Probably they knew that if pursued 

 there they must come out past their enemy, although 

 the corrie is about half a mile wide at its mouth and is 

 very rough hillocky ground. Could our friend the stag 

 really have gone into the corrie ? Peeping into it care- 

 fully, we spied the brown back of a beast near its mouth, 

 and after we had scraped our knees and tummies badly 

 in getting within shot, our deer turned out to be a pony 

 strayed there from Lochcarron or Torridon ! Further 

 enquiry, however, exhibited our coveted friend lying on 

 a heather mulcan (hillock) near the mouth of the corrie, 

 placed so that nothing alive could come near him unseen. 



