212 DEER- STALK ING. 



caught here and there of the bright green meadow which 

 formed the banks of the river. The river itself was visible 

 through many openings, and where the outline of the trees 

 was lower than in other places: beyond the river rose a 

 black-looking moorland, which, growing higher and higher, 

 terminated in mountains with a most varied and fantastic 

 outline of peaks and precipices, the stony sides of which were 

 lighted up by the rising sun, and exhibited a strong contrast 

 to the deep colour of the hills below them, covered with dark 

 heather, and not yet reached by the sun's rays. 



On the other side the ground was of quite a different 

 character : immediately on leaving the wood, the country for 

 some distance had a dreary, cold look, being covered not with 

 heather, but with a kind of grey grass, called there deer's 

 grass, which grows only in cold swampy ground. Here and 

 there this was varied by ranges of greystone and rock, and 

 dotted with numerous lochs. In the distance to the west I 

 could see the upper part of a favourite rocky corrie, the sun 

 shining brightly on its grey rocks : a little to my right the 

 fir-woods terminated, but on that side, between me and the 

 river, of which every bend and reach was there in full view, 

 were numerous little hillocks with birch trees, old and 

 rugged, growing on them : here and there, too, amongst these 

 hillocks, was a great round grey rock, and the whole of this 

 rough ground was intersected with bright green glades. 

 Some three miles up the river a blue line of smoke ascended 

 perpendicularly in the still morning, the chimney it came 

 from being concealed by a group of birch-trees. 



I looked carefully with my glass at all the nooks and 

 grassy places to see if any deer were feeding about them, but 

 could see nothing but two or three old roe. A moment after 

 a pair of young roe walked quietly out of some concealed 

 hollow, and after gazing about a short time and having a 

 game of romps on the top of a hillock, were joined by their 

 mother, and then all three came into the woods at the foot 

 of the craig where I was sitting. The grouse were calling to 

 each other in all directions, and every now and then an old 

 cock-bird would take a short fly, crowing, to some stone or 

 hillock, where he stood and sunned himself. I was struck 

 just then by the curious proceedings of a mountain hare, who 

 had been feeding about two hundred yards from me; she 

 began to show symptoms of uneasiness and fear, taking short 

 runs arid then stopping, and turning her ears towards the 



