A DIFFICULT STALK. 309 



before raising my head, the deer being forward for 

 the time of year, I could smell them. I now took off 

 the handkerchief that I had wrapped round the lock 

 of my rifle, and put on a fresh cap, lying on my side 

 to do it, and I did not look at the deer again till I 

 had recovered my breath and any little excitement 

 of the heart the position and nerve had occasioned. 

 When I peeped up I found myself scarce thirty yards 

 from the deer, with seven or eight old bucks next 

 me lying close together. I was cool by that time, 

 and, in fact, getting cold, wet through as if I had 

 swam the distance. Too close to attempt to raise 

 them with my voice, I lay watching them, and at last 

 perceived that one of the oldest heads among them 

 never stirred anything but its ears, never rested along 

 the ground, and never turned either way to knock off 

 the flies. I had plenty of time in which to mark this 

 peculiarity, and I fixed my eyes on the head to know 

 the reason why. At last I could see a dark spot 

 below the left ear in the neck, and satisfied myself 

 that the deer I looked at had been hit by a ball. 

 He miffht have wasted and not be the best deer. I 

 could in that position judge nothing of the venison, 

 but, thinking that he would get worse, my duty to 

 the Crown made me resolve to kill him. Waiting 

 therefore, a long time for the other heads to go this 

 way and that way at the flies, or to stretch out to 

 rest on the grass, an opportunity arrived, and I 

 fired. Up sprang the herd. My ear told me it was 

 all right ; and, as deer will at times do when so sud- 

 denly scared, they ran, and then paused for a moment 

 at the distance of a hundred vards, when one of their 

 number reeled among them, gave a violent spring, 

 and crashed to the ground, ploughing up the turf 



X 3 



