210 DEER-STALKING. 



and horses. From these circumstances I got into the habit 

 of sketching off an account of my day's wanderings, when 

 they had been of that kind that I felt I might say to myself 

 " forsan et hsec olim meminisse juvabit." 



I had more than once seen in a particular corrie, or not far 

 from it, a remarkably fine stag : his horns, though not 

 peculiarly long, were heavy and large, with ten points well 

 and evenly set on, of a dark colour, and the points as white 

 as ivory. The animal himself was evidently of very great 

 size and age, and in fine condition. He lived quite alone, 

 and did not seem to associate with any of the other deer who 

 frequented that district, although I once saw him rise and 

 trot off, warned by the movement of a herd of hinds ; and at 

 another time he rose unexpectedly on my firing at two stags 

 in a corrie : still on neither of these occasions, nor at any 

 other time, did he appear to be lying in company with the 

 other deer, although not above half a mile from them, nor 

 did he join them in their flight when moved. Instead of this 

 he invariably trotted off sulkily ; and if I chanced to fall in 

 with his track again, it was still solitary, and speeding in a 

 direct course over bog and hill to some far off mountain glen 

 or corrie. The shepherds, who generally gave me notice of 

 any particularly fine stag they might see in their rounds, 

 distinguished this one by a Gaelic name signifying the big 

 red stag, as, besides his other attributes, his colour was of a 

 peculiarly bright red. Donald and I made an unsuccessful 

 raid or two into the red stag's country, some unforeseen or 

 unguarded-against circumstance always warning him of our 

 neighbourhood too soon ; besides which he had a troublesome 

 habit of suddenly rising in the most unaccountable manner 

 from some unexpected corner or hollow. We might examine 

 long and carefully the whole face of a hill, and having made 

 ourselves perfectly sure that nothing larger than a mountain 

 hare could be concealed on its surface, up would rise the red 

 stag from some trifling hollow, or from behind some small 

 hillock, and, without looking to the right or left, off he would 

 go at his usual trot, till we lost him in the distance. 



At another time, after we had beat, as we imagined, a 

 whole wood, so that we were convinced that neither deer nor 

 roe could have been passed over, up would get the stag out of 

 some clump of larch or birch, apparently scarcely big enough 

 to hold a hare. Or else he would rise at the very feet of one 

 of the beaters, and though not above a hundred yards from 



