88 DEER-STALKING. CH. XXV. 



as I found myself in a situation again where I 

 could stand upright. Few people excepting deer- 

 stalkers know the luxury of occasionally standing 

 upright, after having wormed oneself horizonally 

 along the ground for some time. There were the 

 horns with their white tips still motionless, except- 

 ing when he turned back his head to scratch his 

 hide or knock off a fly. I now walked easily with- 

 out stooping till I was within three or four hund- 

 red yards of him, when I was suddenly pulled up 

 by finding that there was no visible manner of 

 approaching a yard nearer. The last sheltering 

 mound was come to ; and although these mounds 

 from a distance looked scattered closely, when I got 

 amongst them I found they were two or three rifle- 

 shots apart at the nearest. There was one chance 

 that occurred to me : a rock or rather stone lay 

 about eighty yards from the stag, and it seemed 

 that I might make use of this as a screen, so as, if 

 my luck was great, to get at the animal. I took off 

 my plaid, laid it on the ground, and ordered the 

 dog to lie still on it ; then buttoning my jacket 

 tightly, and putting a piece of cork, which I carried 

 for the purpose, into the muzzle of my rifle to pre- 

 vent the dirt getting into it, I started in the most 

 snakelike attitude that the human frame would 

 admit of. I found that by keeping perfectly flat, 



