2O4 By Mountain , Lake, and Plain 



barbers ask if it is to be " trimmed " ! I suggested 

 that my head was probably more conspicuous than 

 my hat. " Oh no," was the blunt reply. " They 

 will take it for a white stone " ! I was not affected 

 by the argument. In a country where eagles and 

 tortoises abound, too great a similarity between 

 one's head and a white stone cannot be desirable. 

 One might have one of the reptiles dropped on 

 one's head and meet the fate of the Grecian poet 

 of old ! Seriously, however, apart from the neces- 

 sity of a covered head under a hot sun, a well- 

 coloured helmet, in spite of its size, is not at all 

 a bad thing to stalk in, though I must also admit 

 that the shikari's shaved pate left little to be 

 desired in point of invisibility. Its colour cer- 

 tainly did not require a dressing of " bog earth," 

 as recommended by Scroope, 1 to tone it down ! 



Every possible and impossible plan was dis- 

 cussed, and still the rams lay. Once, about two 

 o'clock, one or two of them rose and took a few 



1 The following amusing passage occurs in Scroope : "I leave 

 it to a deer-stalker's own good sense to consider whether it would 

 not be infinitely better for him to shave his head at once than to 

 run the risk of losing a single shot during the entire season. A 

 man so shorn, with the addition of a little bog earth rubbed scien- 

 tifically over the crown of his head, would be an absolute Ulysses 

 on the moor, and (ceteris paribus) perfectly invincible. Do this 

 or not as you please, gentlemen. I am far from insisting on it 

 with rigour because, to my utter shame and confusion be it spoken, 

 I never did it myself." 



