60 DAYS OF DEER-STALKING. 



" To try to turn them, you mean, Davy, but they were 

 over wilful, and gang'd their own way in spite of you." 



The party were now breasting the mountain, and soon 

 overcame the first ascent ; when, turning to the left, they 

 kept the northern side of Ben Dairg, and bore off towards 

 the east, till they arrived under that huge mass of large 

 gneiss and granite blocks which forms the summit of the 

 mountain. The ground here was strewed over with the 

 bones of calves (fawns), lambs, and moor-fowl, which had 

 fallen a prey to the fox, wild cat, or eagle ; and it was 

 settled that traps should be set for the depredators. 



" What ! have you rabbits here ? I thought I saw one run 

 under the rocks." 



" It must have been a white hare, which is nearly the 

 colour of a rabbit in summer, and occasionally burrows like 

 him. There are no rabbits here." 



Lightfoot now suddenly seized the arm of his friend with 

 an earnest look and panting heart, and making a signal for 

 silence, pointed to a particular spot amidst the chaos of 

 granite blocks. There was a sort of " air of success about 

 him," that seemed to say he had made a capital hit; and, in 

 truth, his excitement appeared to be excessive : judge, then, 

 of his surprise and disappointment, when the only answer 

 he got was, " Ay, those are ptarmigans : you can have a 

 a day at them when you have nothing better to do. They 

 are not worth our notice at present, guarda, e passa." 



They now turned up the hill to the south-east, and pro- 

 ceeded till they came to an immense block of granite which 

 stood upon the sky line of the hill ; and then the gillies sat 

 down on the heather ; he with the dogs in the leash, a 

 little apart from the rest. 



" Is this the forest ? why, there is not a single tree or 

 bush within ten miles of us." 



" You are nearly right there, Harry ; it is a forest only in 

 the sense of the chase ; wild as this immense tract is, how- 

 ever, every rock, corrie, cairn, and mountain is distinguished 

 by some particular name, ' nullum sine nomine saxum ;' and 

 there are numerous sub-divisions which indicate every pre- 

 cise spot, so that the men appointed to bring home the dead 

 deer, being thus told where they lie, never fail to find them."" 



