CHAP.THIRTY-FOUR DEERHOUNDS 



of Malcolm's with the qualification, "'Twas no that bad 

 for so long-legged a chiel as you." 



The dogs were perfect. Bran, an immense but beauti- 

 fully made dog, of a light colour, with black eyes and muz- 

 zle; his ears ofa dark brown, soft and silkyas a lady's hand, 

 the rest of his coat being wiry and harsh, though not ex- 

 actly rough and shaggy like his comrade Oscar, who was 

 long-haired and of a darker brindle colour, with sharp long 

 muzzle, but the same soft ears as Bran, which, by-the-by, 

 is a distinctive mark of high breeding in these dogs. Mal- 

 colm M6r and I took no guns with us; but Donald, as 

 usual, had his old ''dooble barrel," as he calls it, an ancient 

 flint-and-steel affair; the barrels by Manton, and therefore 

 excellentwhen you could get them off, which the stock and 

 locks, apparently the workmanship of a Highland carpen- 

 ter and blacksmith, generally prevented me from doing, 

 the triggers being inaccessible to any ordinary fore-finger, 

 and the stock about half the length of any other gun-stock 

 that ever came in my way. Donald, however, was in the 

 habit of relating great feats which he had performed 

 amongst red-deer with this gun, and he always coddled 

 it up with great care from wet or damp, either when laid 

 up in ordinary at home or when carried by himself over 

 mountain and glen. 



On the present occasion he had a very snuffy and dirty- 

 looking cotton handkerchief tied over the muzzle, and a 

 footless stocking knotted over the locks, to keep out the 

 morning mists. 



Ourpath for some time was along the course of the river, 

 where the great yellow trout were plainly to be seen in the 

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