FEALAR 289 



about eighty yards. It was ticklish work, as they 

 frequently stopped grazing and looking back in 

 my direction. So it was only possible to creep 

 forward slowly when their heads were down. At 

 last I saw the horns of the stag in the mist, which, 

 lifting slightly for a moment, just disclosed his 

 shadowy form. It was, therefore, now or never, 

 so I let go at what seemed the body of the animal. 

 At the shot the stag rushed downhill, a sure sign 

 of a hit, and coming into better light I got in a 

 second bullet behind the shoulder and finished him. 

 He proved to be a large eight-pointer with a strong 

 and wide head (32 inches) ; and so home early to tea. 

 October 8th. — Another day on the home beat with 

 MacDougall. In the morning we found a nine- 

 pointer above the Dualter burn and got into him 

 nicely when I made a bad miss at 120 yards. On 

 crossing to the high ground along the Mar march 

 we looked back and spied four big lots of deer above 

 the Mach-na-Dovie bum. In the centre herd was 

 a fine large eleven-pointer, so we at once retraced 

 our steps and worked round and above the deer 

 till it was easy to drop down through a marsh to 

 within 130 yards of the stag we had marked. 

 When he came into sight I fear I was somewhat 

 careless in taking position, as lying in a swamp, the 

 rushes obscured a complete view of the stag. 

 However, the resulting miss was inexcusable. All 

 the deer now galloped downhill to cross the bum 

 at the foot and ascend the far face, and in doing 

 so our stag had to go out of sight into a deep gully, 

 which gave us time to run about a hundred yards 

 downhill and expect a very long shot. As the 

 hinds climbed up the face and the stag came intq 



