LOUD MALMSBURY's SUCCESS. 3(35 



tall form or bidding us to stoop —-a thing that, had I 

 been stalking, I should on no account have attempted ; 

 I should have crawled on my hands and knees be- 

 neath the bank, and have escaped the notice of the 

 deer above me. The wind was right for this attempt 

 in every possible way ; for, while we were down w ind 

 of the stag, it roared through the trees so much rs 

 to drown any accidental noise in our approach. On 

 we crept, after ice had passed the water line^ cautiously 

 enough. We at last came to the spot where the stag 

 had made his lair ; he was gone, and from his lair I 

 looked down on the lake, and saw the mistake that 

 had been committed ; ivhen v)e icalked the water line in 

 an erect position, the stag must have seen us all. I 

 reached Achnacarry at half-past seven, after a hard 

 day, having seen seventeen male deer, seven of whom 

 had magnificent heads, and were strangers from 

 neighbouring forests ; four of them, to use Stuart's 

 expression, were " terrible deers," and larger than 

 Lord ]\[almsbury had ever killed. For a day or two 

 after this I became too ill to stalk deer, and Lord 

 Malmsbury went to Gusa and the mountains beyond. 

 Here he saw a fine stag, who was pointed out by 

 Donald Stuart, known to his foresters as " the great 

 cart-wheel deer," from his horns forming almost a 

 circle, and nearly meeting at the top. This stag had 

 not been seen by the keepers for two years, and was 

 not one of those I saw, when, after a long and most 

 difficult stalk, as the stag Avas not stationary but fed 

 on. Lord Mahnsbury killed him, giving to his gun 

 fourteen stags out of sixteen shots, a success which, 

 if equalled, cannot be surpassed, and adding to the 

 hall and rooms at Achnacarry a head " to cut " almost 

 all, if not all, the other trophies " down." 



