296 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



very good idea of what might even have happened to us then, 

 had I permitted her to turn her broadside to the weather. 

 Having reached Stuart's house, we proceeded to wait for a stag 

 who usually in a morning fed out of the wood in that vicinity. 

 However, the stag declined to show himself, and, it having 

 become broad daylight, I returned to the cottage and discussed 

 the viands brought for my breakfast. The wind steadily blow- 

 ing due east, we then set out to reach the farthest end of the 

 ground allotted for my stalk, and, having reached a place where 

 Stuart usually glassed the ground, we made out a large stag, in 

 company with some hinds, close under Corrie Glass. The size 

 of the stag was scarce determined when, to our dismay, the 

 wind jumped (for it took no time to shift), and blew determin- 

 ately due west, with an occasional southing in it, which added 

 to our difficulties, and made the entire travel and previous 

 arrangement for the day useless. We consulted what we were 

 to do, and, at last, Stuart ruled that the only chance of approach- 

 ing the stag was to ascend the precipice of the quarry and to 

 get above him, and then try to find out some draft or local 

 current of air that would not reveal our presence. We set 

 about this, and here I must blame Stuart's want of caution. 

 In proceeding towards the corrie, he neglected with his glass to 

 clear the ground before us, and, consequently, we ran into 

 several stags and put them off more than one place in which, 

 bad as the wind was, they were accessible. Having ascended 

 the corrie, this happened again, and we again put off a stag 

 that, seen in time, we might have got at. I was following in 

 the steps of my stalker, and had nothing to do with this, and 

 therefore no one to blame but him ; and, alas ! when we got to 

 the craigs above the stag we were trying to approach, and 

 Stuart was viewing the ground, the uneasy trotting about in a 

 small space of the hinds convinced us that they had our wind, and, 

 though they could not just then fix our whereabout, all hope of 

 getting to the stag was vain. Having given up all idea of this 

 stag, we sought the upper side of the wood of Gusa, and very 

 soon made out another. Having descended and obtained, as 



