IN THE HIGHLANDS 139 



they can stand the fatigue of the hill. The keepers are 

 sent out very early to find the deer and mark them down 

 for the guns, and when the soft gunners reach the ground, 

 on horseback if possible, they are led up to the shooting 

 spot as if to kill a cow or a sheep, getting their shot, 

 but never forgetting the luncheon hour. 



** When we went to stalk we were always off ere 

 daylight. I have walked miles on the moor to reach 

 the spying spot long before dawn. We had a bite ere 

 we started to diminish carriage, but all we needed till we 

 returned homo was coarse barley scones and the heel 

 of a home-made cheese in our pockets, while we never 

 dreamt of any pocket ' pistol ' except the best water 

 we met with. Then great were the excitement and 

 enjoyment we had, which the sleepy Sassenach entirely 

 misses, in watching every step of the deer feeding hill- 

 wards to their look-out post. We had to consider how 

 to get into a good position and have a shot before 

 nine o'clock, at which hour they sometimes lie down with 

 heads towards every direction, to discuss their news and 

 examine anything suspicious on their horizon. Unless 

 one gets a stalk and shot ere they lie down they had better 

 be let alone till they get up again in the afternoon. 

 Sometimes we went to a distant beat and did not come 

 home at night, but slept in the heather — if possible, 

 below a rock or stone tolerably rain-proof. Then our 

 stalker had provisions put up for two days, and when, 

 as often happened, they included a leg of mutton, I 

 never saw the bare bone that the keeper or gillie did not 

 crack for the sake of the marrow, precisely as every 

 bone in caves with prehistoric remains is found care- 



