58 SHOOTING AND SALMON FISHING 



the day, it will always be ready and never get mislaid. As to 

 articles that cannot be found when wanted, we would advise 

 those who do not indulge in the questionable luxury of a valet, 

 to have all such things as boot-trees, spats, cartridge-bags, 

 gun-covers, etc., plainly marked with their initials. 



The worry of a struggle with a sticking cartridge may 

 usually be avoided if the chambers of the gun are well oiled 

 at starting, and the dose repeated once or twice during the wet 

 day, for which purpose the keeper should always carry a 

 small bottle of oil ; but if none is in the field, fat or butter will 

 do nearly as well. A really pulpy, frayed, and swollen cart- 

 ridge is a melancholy object to look at or handle, and when 

 once reduced to such a state is best thrown away, as no efforts 

 to dry it can restore it to its pristine smoothness. 



To many sportsmen, the author among the number, the 

 pursuit of the ptarmigan is of all others the most fascinating ; 

 it is the deer-stalking of the shot-gun, for it takes the shooter 

 to the same rough heights and the same wild scenery the 

 stalker delights in, and anyone who can walk a ptarmigan 

 hill need never fear for his powers if offered a day with the 

 deer. These hardy birds are seldom found in any quantity 

 below an altitude of 2,000 feet, and where the heather and the 

 grouse cease to exist, there they thrive. Ptarmigan ! As the 

 word is penned, what pleasant memories are recalled of stony 

 hills in Sutherland, Inverness, Ross, Perth, and Argyll — visions 

 of rocky peaks, of dull grey stones patched with black and 

 yellow crottle — some flat, and standing out at right angles to 

 the hillside, look like the giant slates of giant schoolboys ; 

 others, nearly round, seem barely able to keep their places, and 

 appear as if a push would send them crashing to the valley ; 

 rocks of every shape and size, stones by the myriad, from the 

 tiny ones that run away in thousands from the tread, to the 

 great lumps as big as small cottages, round whicli a careful 

 way has to be picked. Rocks and stones on every side, some 

 shining and sparkling in the sun, others looking black in 



