ON SHOOTING. 201 



wait in the mist can be relieved by watching the effect of 

 the wind striking different points and comes : the resulting 

 eddies will teach you a good deal. 



Advice as to " keeping cool " may seem superfluous, 

 but do not deceive yourself into underestimating the 

 difficulty of doing so. Even your professional attendant 

 is apt to be moved by his Celtic fervour towards persuading 

 you to try a shot whose result, if successful, could only be 

 a fluke. An arduous stalk may disclose your stag walking 

 away " end on " : once over that ridge, you will not see 

 him again to-day, for it is growing dark. But restrain 

 yourself : the odds are in favour of his halting on the ridge 

 for a last look behind him, giving you an easy broadside 

 chance. Even if he does not, the very lateness of the hour 

 should make you thankful that you did not risk a shot 

 which might have sent a noble beast to die a lingering death. 

 A miss would have mattered less, but would have marred 

 the pleasure of your homeward journey and the memory 

 of a day otherwise, perhaps, flawless. And these recol- 

 lections of stalking days apart from the death of stags 

 are something worth carrying home. Tired you may be, 

 and footsore, hungry, thirsty, wet ; but you have had a 

 glimpse of the sublime. He who has sat, a human atom 

 among the chaos of rocks on the summit of Carn Ejge, 

 nearly 4,oooft. from the not far distant sea, and watched 

 the mist being sucked by the sun off peak after peak, ridge 

 after ridge, unveiling all that is fairest in Scotland, bears 

 away with him a treasure which neither time can tarnish, 

 failing eyesight obscure, nor Chancellor of the Exchequer 

 steal away. 



