46 DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 



from their regiments. Before settling to regular 

 work, the " green hand " had the honour of draw- 

 ing first blood, by killing a hart of 14 stone, at a 

 scrambling afternoon beat of Torlochan wood. It 

 was a snap in the thick of the trees with an 

 S.S.G. cartridge, and the only shot fired that 

 day. 



Our plan was to give several days first to 

 Scalastal, reserving the last week for Glenforsa, 

 as a bonne bouche. 



It was the first week of October, and the stags 

 had given notice by some trumpet-blasts that the 

 season of warfare was at hand. The Scalastal 

 overseer told us they came down after nightfall to 

 feed on a field of turnips close to the farm-house, 

 and one of them for the last few nights had been 

 " roaring like mad." I was seated by a good fire 

 reading, when the man popped in his head to say, 

 that the stag was " at it again," and urging me to 

 come out and hear his defiant music. The sudden 

 change from the bright and comfortable glare of 

 the fire and candles to the solemn gloom of a 

 moonless and starless night, whose silence was 

 only broken by occasional'bello wings of the stag, 



