THE BRITISH ISLES 371 



have used a glass or carried one. They have to rely on the stalker 

 to tell them what is about, and I had an old friend, eone now to 

 that glen where the heather never fades, who carried one for years ; 

 and one day, on the last occasion that I ever visited him in his forest, 

 I took his glass from its case and put It up to see what sort of an 

 instrument it might be, and lo, the lenses were so coated with dust 

 that it was impossible to see anything through them. My friend had 

 not looked through his telescope for years, and yet he had carried 

 it every day stalking. 



I fancy there are a good many more who do the same thing, and 

 yet a man who has not mastered and used a good telescope when 

 stalking game in a wide open country has never known the beauty 

 of the sport. Instandy, too, he becomes of use to his stalker in 

 finding deer, or in keeping a wounded beast in sight ; and there are 

 times, too, when the stalker may not be keen and may deliberately 

 not see deer. 



It is useless to point out the advantages of the glass then, or 

 in cases where you wish to find which is the best head, and, as 

 is so often the case, the stalker puts you on to the one that is the 

 easiest for him to get up to, caring only that you get a beast of 

 some sort. 



Well, I do not pretend to know more about the telescope than 

 any other sportsman ; but in the Rocky Mountains twenty years ago, 

 in Norway and in Scotland, it has been my friend and comforter, and 

 enabled me time after time to gaze on my furred friends close beside 

 me, as it were, for many an hour together. 



But deer-stalking is a terribly expensive pastime ; and it may be 



