EEMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 211 



basting them the while with butter, and pep- 

 pering and salting them well ; and he did 

 venison steaks (the only way to eat red deer 

 venison) to perfection. You may judge he was 

 a keen sportsman, and somehow we cottoned ; 

 but he had the queerest, though not the plea- 

 santest, way of expressing his approval of any 

 of your proceedings I ever rememember. I 

 had been sent to Kenraisort to kill a stag, and 

 the weather, as is not unfrequent in the Lews, 

 had been of that atrocious character that shin- 

 burning — while reading and re-reading the two 

 or three books one had — was the only order of 

 the days one had to pass inside that bothy. 

 Besides, the wind was foul : the Harris lochs, 

 Washermit, Scoorst, and Uhlevat, were over 

 their banks, and not fishable. Three days of 

 this pleasant weather had passed over, when, 

 on the fourth morning, which seemed worse 

 even than the three preceding, Angus McLean, 

 the Kenraisort stalker, came to say the wind 

 was changed, and that we must try for the stag, 

 as he was wanted at the castle. I obeyed 

 orders, rather against the grain, only I had not 

 pluck enough to say nay. We sallied forth on 

 one of the worst Lewisian mornings, which is 

 saying a great deal, of my experience. Blind- 

 ing hailstorms ; squalls that you had to hold 



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