CHAPTER THREE THE GROUSE 



One of these light clouds, which we were watching, was 

 suddenly caught in an eddy of wind, and, after being twist- 

 ed into strange fantastic shapes, was lifted up from the face 

 of the mountain like a curtain, leaving in its place a magn- 

 ificent stag, of a size of body and stretch of antler rarely 

 seen; he was not above three hundred yards from us, and 

 standing in full relief between us and the sky. After gazing 

 around him, and looking like the spirit of the mountain, he 

 walked slowly on towards a ridg-e which connected two 

 shoulders of the mountain together. Frequently he stop- 

 ped, and scratched with his hoof at some lichen-covered 

 spot, feeding slowly (quite unconscious of danger) on the 

 moss which he separated from the stones. I drew my shot, 

 and put bullets into both barrels, and we followed him 

 cautiously, creeping through the winding hollows of the 

 rocks, sometimes advancing towards the stag, and at 

 other times obliged suddenly to throw ourselves flat on 

 the face of the stony mountain, to avoid his piercing gaze, 

 as he turned frequently round to see that no enemy was 

 following in his track. 



He came at one time to a ridge from whichhe hada clear 

 view of a long stretch of the valley beneath. Here he halted 

 to look down either in search of his comrades or to see that 

 all was safe in that direction. I could see the tops of his 

 horns as they remained perfectly motionless for several 

 minutes on the horizon. We immediately made on for the 

 place, crawling like worms over the stones, regardless of 

 bruises and cuts. We were within about eightyyards of the 

 points of his horns; the rest of the animal was invisible, 

 being concealed by a mass of stone behind which he was 

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