76 GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND. 



lunch than the cry of the hounds reached our ears. 

 One or two of the sportsmen jumped up and seized 

 their guns, loading them with large buckshot. 

 Scarcely had they done so when a roe appeared, 

 heading straight for the lunch-party, and then stopped, 

 listening to the beagles behind. Somebody fired, 

 though it was a longish shot, and the deer went off 

 slowly to the right followed by the hounds. Soon 

 the cry ceased, and presently the young dog returned 

 covered with blood. Search was made, and the buck, 

 with the old bitch still tearing at him, was found lying 

 dead. Later on in the day we got a second. It is 

 useless to multiply accounts of roe-driving, as, in the 

 first place, it is a sport regularly practised in the 

 Scottish Highlands, and secondly, it can readily be 

 imagined by any one who has taken part in an English 

 pheasant-shoot, only supposing every tenth hare to be 

 a couple of roe-deer, for they rarely go alone. I need 

 hardly remark that in driving the shot-gun only is 

 used, and the usual charge is No. 2 in the left barrel, 

 and No. 4 in the right. 



Before I had had many weeks' roe-shooting, I had 

 made up my mind that in order to thoroughly enjoy 

 the sport it was necessary to employ hounds. This is 

 a form of sport with which English sportsmen should 

 be familiar in theory, for there are some capital 

 descriptions of it in St. John,^ and to those who are 

 not acquainted with his fascinating works I would say, 

 " Get them at once." St. John used foxhounds as far 



* " Wild Sports of the Scottish Highlands ; " " Sportsman," etc. ; 

 " Tour in Sutherlandshire." 



