WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



of them in full cry were at the roe's heels, and driving him 

 directly in theface of one of the guns, who finished the hunt 

 with a cartridge, killing him not twenty yards ahead of the 

 dogs. When the roe was opened afterwards, the whole cart- 

 ridge, wire and all, was foundembedded in hisheart,aproof 

 of the great efficacy of this kind of charge, and the superi- 

 ority of its strength over that of loose shot. 



After resting the dogs and talking over the chace, 1 left 

 my friends at their passes again, and went back to draw the 

 cover for another roe. The dogs were very soon in full cry 

 again, and as luck would have it, out of four roe that had 

 started they had got on the track of a fine buck; this roe 

 was run for some time in as good style as the last, and after 

 he had narrowly escaped being shot two or three times, I 

 shot him dead about fifty yards before the hounds. During 

 the run I saw two foxes start; one of them waded quietly 

 through the swamp towards my English friend, who, how- 

 ever, did not shoot at him, because he was afraid, he said, of 

 losing a chance at the roe; but I rather suspect that having 

 been bred a fox-hunter in his own country, he had a kind 

 of holy horror against killing a fox in any but the orthodox 

 manner which he had been accustomed to. 



After having opened one of the bucks and rewarded the 

 beagles with the entrails, liver, dr'c.we repaired to a cottage 

 at hand, where our host for the day had provided a capital 

 luncheon. 



Frequently when passing these swamps and rugged 

 ground, I have seen roe start up from the rough heather, 

 or ieeding, knee deep in the water, on the rank weeds and 

 herbage.The best part of this ground for wild-fowl is grad- 



272 



