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CHAPTER XIII. 



A TAME STAG. 



WHEN writing about deer and stalking I 

 must mention a curious little circum- 

 stance that occurred during my stalking ad- 

 ventures. I was once staying at the Forest of 

 Morsgail with the proprietor, who, on a misty, 

 hill-impossible day, proposed a walk to a neigh- 

 bouring loch. I was much astonished by the 

 head forester insisting on accompanying us, 

 armed with his rifle, to protect his master 

 against the possible attack of a tame stag, that 

 he said had charged him some time ago, and 

 would have killed him had he not climbed a 

 rock, where the animal could not get at him ; 

 and he further declared that, as long as that 

 stag remained in that forest, he never would 

 traverse it unarmed, and that, if again attacked, 

 he would assuredly kill the beast if he could ; 

 that he was the terror of the whole country ; 

 that no one dared to cross the forest, or go 

 into it, for fear of him. Now this stag was 



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