46 EEMINISOENCES OF THE LEWS. 



let the grass grow under your feet ; but they 

 stood for ever, you got to them at last, and 

 birds generally lie well in those northern 

 regions. R. M., who shot wdth me my last 

 season of the Lews, as he did the first, and 

 who knows a dog as well as most men, did 

 not like their desperate range at first, and 

 exclaimed, "Where are they going to ? " But 

 he came to, and owned it was the proper 

 breaking for those parts. 



I remember well, one fine evening, poor old 

 "Whack," a pointer, was let ofi", and he took 

 one of those sweeps that no dog I ever saw 

 could surpass. The beat was a large flat, 

 running down to a loch, round by its side to a 

 river, along its banks, and then up to the 

 higher grounds above it. I had taken up a 

 position where I could watch his movements. 

 He scoured the plain, tried the lake sides, down 

 by the river to the pools, and swept by me up 

 the glen to the hill tops. I should be afraid 

 to say what was the distance Whack traversed 

 in that wonderful cast, but it was miles. Back 

 came the old dog down the glen to me. " Got 

 them at last, master, but I have had a hard 

 gallop for it. Let me fetch my wind — a sup of 

 water — and now come along, and we'll have a 

 good evening's sport." And so we had. The 



