ROSS-SHIRE. 241 



the cover before he came into view, and was promptly 

 killed. The spyglasses were not idle during the short 

 luncheon sit, and soon showed that in a corrie in front 

 of the party there was a fine royal busily engaged 

 in herding a lot of hinds. The other stags were 

 broken into small lots, some feeding, some roaring, 

 others rolling in the "poll buiridh," and plenty skirmish- 

 ing with each other, so that there was nothing for the 

 stalking party to do but to wait, watch, and hope 

 that some of them would move to better ground. 

 After a long wait two of the stags left the corrie to 

 make their way towards the hill the party were on. 

 As they neared the foot, one stopped and commenced 

 to rub his horns on an old stump of a tree, but 

 the other again came straight at Mr. Shoolbred, 

 and was knocked over in due course. It was then 

 naturally expected the second stag would be seen 

 galloping away, but he was so taken up with tearing 

 at the tree stump that he never heard the shot ; at 

 last, tiring of his amusement, he commenced to look 

 about for his companion, when not seeing him, he came 



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