282 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



and sent him home. I now ascended to the top 

 of the range, hoping to see something of two fine 

 stags that had passed out of the valley in the 

 direction of Mar at the shots, and also to survey 

 the big valley over the Tarf where a large stag had 

 been heard roaring the previous evening. How- 

 ever, just as I reached the open crest a heavy snow- 

 storm came on and soon enveloped all things in 

 darkness. I waited two hours, hoping it would 

 clear, and then descended to the valley, where I 

 found that Sandy had returned, so we loaded up 

 the stag shot by Wedderburn and returned home. 

 September 30th. — My indefatigable uncle, who is 

 seventy-three years of age and yet a splendid 

 walker, suggested a visit to-day to the far ground 

 above the Tarf valley, which a good stag was known 

 to frequent with his hinds. About 10.30 we found 

 him on the ridge of the Mar march, and after 

 watching him for some time, he moved still further 

 south, and lay down with all his harem in full view 

 of all the ground below. The wind was north-east, 

 and so left nothing but the inevitable uphill crawl. 

 The ground was, on the whole, more broken than 

 that I experienced two days before, but there were 

 certain hollows on the upper parts of the ridge 

 which it was not possible to spy from below, and 

 one of these, in fact, proved my undoing. A crawl 

 over one marsh in full view was soon accomplished 

 safely, and then, the deer being out of sight above, 

 I had nothing to do but walk straight uphill to 

 within some 450 yards of the resting animals. Then 

 I took a short rest, got the rifle out, and began to 

 crawl upwards to a small mound from which I 

 hoped to get a long shot, or, at any rate, study 



