TRACKS OF DEER. 213 



hillside behind her. I soon saw the cause of her alarm in a 

 beautiful marten cat : the latter, however, having probably 

 already made her morning meal, took little notice of the hare, 

 but came with quiet leaps towards me. As I was well con- 

 cealed amongst the grey fragments of rock which covered the 

 top of the craig, and which were exactly the same colour as 

 the clothes I was dressed in, the little animal did not see me. 

 When about thirty yards off she suddenly stopped and looked 

 in my direction, having evidently become aware, through 

 some of her fine senses, of the vicinity of an enemy. She 

 offered me a fair shot, and, well aware of the quantity of 

 game killed by these animals, I sent a rifle-ball right into 

 her yellow chest as she sat upright with her head turned 

 towards me. 



But time advanced, so I delayed no longer, and started off 

 in a westerly direction. Many a weary mile did I tramp 

 that day without seeing anything but grouse, and an 

 occasional hare. Nevertheless I saw many fresh tracks of 

 red deer : particularly crossing one mossy piece of ground, 

 where there appeared to have been at least twenty or thirty 

 deer, and amongst them one or two large fine stags. In one 

 place I saw a solitary track of a noble stag, but it was two 

 or three days old. I judged that the herd whose tracks I saw 

 had a good chance of being in or about a corrie, a good view 

 of which I should get from the next height ; but after a long 

 and tiresome survey of the ground I could see no living 

 creature, excepting a heron, who was standing in his usual 

 disconsolate attitude on a stone in the burn that ran out of 

 the corrie, adding by his very presence to the solitude of the 

 scene. " I don't understand where these deer can be," was 

 my internal ejaculation, " but here they are not ; so come on, 

 good dog." Another and another height did I pass over, and 

 many a glen did I scan inch by inch till my eyes ached with 

 straining through the glass : nothing could I see, and I began 

 to think to myself that as it was past two and the shepherd's 

 house was some three hours' walk, I had better turn off in 

 that direction ; so slanting my course a little to the north, I 

 pulled my plaid tight round me and walked on. In deer- 

 stalking, as much as in the every-day pursuits of life, the 

 old adage holds good 



Credula vilam 

 Spes fovct. 



And this said hope carries the weary stalker over many a 



