IN THE HIGHLANDS 133 



assist him with the deer, and that was often a great 

 bother. After gralloching the beast, I was taught to 

 tear up heathery turf and hide my prize from birds 

 and beasts, of which in those times there were more than 

 enough, and all willing to dine on venison. Then I 

 squibbed gunpowder among the clods all round, and no 

 fox would touch a beast so perfumed. If we only had 

 our friend down at Grudie Bridge, three miles ofi and 

 twelve miles from Tigh Dige, we could direct a carrier 

 to the deer while we were more agreeably employed. 



** But first, where on earth were my shoes ? After 

 about an hour's hunt we found them. Then, the brown 

 pony coming in sight, we resolved to try and catch him 

 and saddle him with the stag, but probably he smelt blood 

 on us and would never let us handle him. We wen 

 close to a scree of the Beinn Eighe quartz shingle. If 

 we could only rush him into it we had him, but then 

 where were our bridle and ropes to tie the deer on him ? 

 Luckily we were both good string-collectors, and had two 

 big handkerchiefs, so when at last we grabbed the stray 

 horse, we brought him below a steep, broken bank, to 

 which we slid the deer, and after about an hour's calming 

 of our terrified charger the deer was on his back with its 

 legs tied below him. Gentle reader, if you have an 

 enemy whom you would like to make miserable and 

 mad, you will give him exactly such a job as fell to our 

 lot for several hours while we were covering the three 

 miles on that dreadful hillside. But ere dark we had 

 our stag near the track and bridge, and the place was 

 marked so that the men with the deer-saddled horse 

 whom we sent off next morning needed not us to direct 



