72 EEMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 



produced anomalous things — certainly not 

 ephemera — though, strange to say, I once 

 fastened a bundle of something on a hook that 

 killed fifteen fish — kelts, mind you ; but what 

 won't they take ? I did love stalking, indeed. 

 I began well with a single rifle, was not the 

 least excited, killed four out of five of the 

 chances I had, and impertinently wondered 

 how any living soul could miss a stag broadside 

 on at, say, eighty to a hundred yards ; and so, 

 fired with ambition, I took to a double rifle — a 

 wonderful weapon, made, at F. M's suggestion, 

 by Askey, of Bedale — with which I broke so 

 many bottles at long distance, that the said 

 F. M. would stand no more. Had we had cups 

 then at Aline I should have won them all. I 

 made an example of cormorants and herons, 

 even of gulls ; but when it came to deer — oh ! 

 F. M.'s bottle imp sat across my sight, and no 

 longer was my ear gratified with the dead thud 

 of success, but grated by the ringing crash of 

 some rock either over or under him. The fact 

 was, I was afflicted with the stalking fever, and 

 when I came to shoot I was like Gil Bias when, 

 in the encounter between the robbers and Don 

 Alvar and his suite, he shut his eyes and fired 

 his carbine anywhere. 



Such was our firm, and three good men and 



