288 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



Beig. Then it took a good hour to climb the steep 

 face of Ben Ivan, and another to search for Wedder- 

 burn's stag, which we could not find. 1 On the top 

 I saw lots of Ptarmigan and four nice stags, but 

 they were on the Mar ground, so, feeling virtuous, 

 I let them alone. Coming home I found the same 

 eight-pointer, now with a hundred hinds, on the 

 Fealar hill, but although I stalked him and got 

 close in, I considered him as being unworthy even 

 for the larder. 



The following Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were 

 hopeless for stalking, owing to a heavy gale, floods 

 of rain and dense mist. 



October 7th. The mist was still dense on all the 

 hill-tops, but I went south-west to the slopes on 

 Carn-na-Righ, as there was just a chance of finding 

 a stag on the mist edge where it could be seen. 

 Soon after leaving the road and moving up the face 

 of the mountain I heard a stag whose roar was so 

 loud and low-pitched that I knew he must be an 

 old fellow. The wind was here blowing straight 

 downhill, and after working up, until viewing was 

 possible, I just made out three hinds grazing slowly 

 uphill. The stag soon roared just beyond them, 

 and I had hopes he would sooner or later come down 

 to these hinds, or that they were the outliers of a 

 bigger herd. 



After waiting half an hour, during which the 

 hinds moved further and further into the mist, 

 I crawled after them and kept them just in sight at 



1 As a matter of fact it was not found until 1919, for Mr. 

 Wedderburn completely lost himself that evening, and landed 

 up in the Dee valley, where he spent the night in a shepherd's 

 hut, only returning next day. 



