142 LONG PRACTICE NECESSARY. 



means to counteract this, and you had better go home ; 

 but if it be not too violent, you can kneel on one knee, and 

 get a rest by supporting your left elbow on the other. 



Take care that the ramrods to your rifles be large and 

 strong; they will otherwise be broken in the hurry of 

 loading. I recommend you, moreover, to make one of 

 your hill-men carry a very long and stout one in his hand, 

 having a mark made in it at the length of your barrel, that 

 you may ascertain the exact load. I used no other when 

 this was at hand. 



As for the sport itself, that no one can have a proper 

 perception of till he is chief in command, and able to stalk 

 the deer himself; and this he cannot do without long 

 practice, close observation, and a thorough knowledge of 

 the ground and habits of the animal. As an instance of 

 this, one of the best shots in a rifle regiment was appointed 

 some years ago to the office of forester in the Ben-Ormin 

 Forest, in Sutherland ; but being a stranger to the country, 

 devoid of assistance, and without the means of good in- 

 struction in the craft, he was only able to kill one hart 

 during two years of apprenticeship, and at length resigned 

 his situation in despair. Novices, therefore, have ne- 

 cessarily a deer-stalker allotted to them from the forest, 

 who very properly keeps the devoted rifleman in due 

 subjection ; he will not permit him to show a hair of his 

 head above the heather on certain ticklish occasions, and 

 the miserable youth is always totally unconscious of what 

 is going on ; he creeps and meanders through the black 

 and miry channels of a bog, quite ignorant of the dire 

 necessity for such a pastime; lies down to hand like a 

 pointer, and runs till he is as breathless as an immerged 



