DEER-STALKING IN THE HIGHLANDS. 169 



ancle he should indubitably be ; since in running swiftly down 

 precipices, picturesquely adorned with sharp-edged, angular, 

 vindictive stones, his feet will get into awkward cavities ; if his 

 legs are devoid of the faculty of breaking, so much the better. 

 He should rejoice in wading through torrents, and be able to 

 stand firmly on water-worn stones, unconscious of the current ; 

 or if the waves be too powerful for him. when he loses his bal- 

 ance, and goes floating away on his back, (for if he has any 

 tact or sense of the picturesque, he will fall backwards,) he 

 should raise his rifle aloft in the air, lest his powder get wet. 

 As for sleep, he should be a stranger to it ; and if a man gets 

 into the slothful habit of lying in bed for five or six hours at a 

 time, I should be glad to know what he is fit for ? Steady 

 very steady his hand should be, and at times wholly without 

 a pulse. Hyacinthine curls are a very graceful ornament to 

 the head, but I leave it to a deer-stalker's own good sense, 

 whether it would not be infinitely better for him to shave his 

 crown at once, than to risk the loss of a single shot during the 

 season. As to mental endowments, he should have the quali- 

 fications of a Ulysses and a Philidor combined. Wary and 

 circumspect, never going rashly to work, but surveying all his 

 ground like an experienced general before he commences ope- 

 rations, patience under suspense and disappointment, fertile in 

 conception, and rapid and decisive in execution. He must be 

 brave to attempt he must have fortitude to suffer. What 

 more can be required for the greatest undertakings?" 



The forest of Atholl, the scene of the operations so graphi- 

 cally described by Mr. Scrope, is one of the most famous of the 

 deer forests, and consists of a tract of wild but romantic coun- 

 try, extending nearly forty miles in length, and in some parts 

 eighteen in breadth. It contains 135,451 acres; of which 

 51,708 are reserved exclusively (with a slight exception, as to 

 Glen Tilt, where sheep are occasionally pastured) for deer- 

 stalking. The highest mountains in the hunting district are 

 Ben-y-Gloe and Ben Dairg. Of the immense size of the former, 

 some idea may be formed from the statement of its dimensions. 

 The highest point, Cairn-na-Gour (or the goats' hill) is 3725 



