THE DRIVE, 359 



couched among some small grey stones, and watched 

 the sky line for the first appearance of the drivers. I 

 saw them, at first not larger, to all appearance, 

 than blackcocks, and then they descended into the 

 quarry. How eagerly I watched for the monster's 

 horns to appear above the edge of the preci2)ice 

 can only be known to a sportsman ; but, alas ! the 

 whistle of a blackcock's wing, or the alarm note of 

 an old cock grouse, was all I saw or heard; the 

 stag icas not in the quarry, and, for the hundredth 

 time, had mysteriously eluded his pursuers. Only 

 once was this stag in a position for stalking, and 

 that was in this corrie ; then Lord Malmsbury very 

 nearly got to within rifle distance, but, alas ! to the 

 stag a friendly roe-deer bounded up and warned of 

 the danger, and the stalk in consequence was de- 

 feated. The warning note of a grouse, the run of a 

 hare, the bound of a roe, or the flight of blackgame, 

 or even the trot of a sheep, are each sufficient to 

 comnumicate danger to the deer, and, Avithout stoj^ping 

 to inquire why these creatures move, the stag avails 

 himself of the hint and flies to distant hills. 



It is obvious to me that if this " monster stag of 

 Corrie Vortoht " eludes the rifle much lonoer, the 

 Highlanders will give him up as a myth or magical im- 

 possibility, and liken him to " the great or awfu' stag 

 of Gusa," who, in the mountains of Lochiel, is said to 

 have reformed the wdcked shepherd. The shepherd 

 was a lawless fellow, and among other delinquencies 

 killed the deer, and, when remonstrated with by better- 

 disposed people, he vauntingly replied, " that, if the 

 devil himself was to forbid it, he still would have his 

 share of the deer; for, in his opinion, he had as good a 

 right to them as any Cameron in the world." The 



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