CHAPTER XXIII. 



DEER-SHOOTING. 



THE title of this paper will sufficiently define its scope 

 to a sportsman's mind. As, however, these pages 

 appeal equally, I hope, to the general reader, it may 

 be as well for me to remark at the commencement 

 that the method of deer-shooting known to sportsmen 

 as " deer-stalking " is excluded from this article. It 

 has been my fate in many lands to have to stalk both 

 deer and antelopes, and sometimes when not only my 

 own dinner, but that of my servants also, depended 

 upon successful stalking and straight shooting. I 

 must, however, honestly admit that of deer-stalking 

 par excellence, that is, Scotch deer- stalking, I know 

 nothing, except from books. Nor, I may say, do I 

 greatly care to do so. Fascinating as the sport must have 

 been in the days of St. John,^ it seems now to have 

 very greatly degenerated. The sportsman is placed in 

 charge of a professional stalker, who allows him no 

 voice as to the method of approaching the deer. 

 " Follow me and do as I do," is all he deigns to say, 



* Not the Evangelist, but the author of "Wild Sports of the 

 Scottish Highlands." 



