A HUNT. 157 



stags. The hiuds with calves at their foot are not in 

 condition ; and the yell hinds, as they are called — those 

 which have either had no calves or have lost them 

 — your eye is not practised enough to distinguish from 

 the others. You may see plenty of roe-deer here, for the 

 wood is full of them ; but don't shoot at them, for you 

 might disturb and lose a stag worth fifty roes who 

 might be lying a few yards off us.' Instead of abruptly 

 ascending further, they now slanted along the face of 

 the hill till they reached the water-course, a deep gash 

 worn by a rapid and perennial torrent quite through the 

 soil into the living rock of the mountain side. The 

 rugged banks were covered with dense thickets of the trees 

 common to such situations, which overhung the stream 

 or interrupted its comse with their fallen and withered 

 boughs ; the torrent itself dark, foaming, and impetuous, 

 leaping from rock to rock and ledge to ledge in many a 

 pretty fall, and sometimes in cascades of considerable 

 height and grandeur. The pass led by a pool between 

 two of these falls ; a deeply furrowed ledge of rock af- 

 forded stepping-stones when the stream was low, by which 

 an active man might spring across. Having overleaped 

 this obstacle, they soon emerged from the wood upon the 

 more open hill, where the heather, although still long 

 and thick, was less tangled than in the forest, and the 

 more solid and less broken ground afforded firmer footing. 

 The change was very comfortable to Treshara, w'ho now 

 soon recovered his failing wind, and felt his sinews re- 

 cover a firmer tone, and they cautiously approached the 

 crest of the height to which they had won their way 

 with so much toil. Grienvallich now stealing forwards, 

 began with curious and jealous eye to scan through his 

 glass the broad hollow which rose gradually above them. 

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