DEER STALKING. 231 



imposing : we were far removed from everything 

 human ; we stood above the world, and could exclaim 

 with Byron, " this, this is solitude ! " 



How long we might have gazed on this brilliant 

 spectacle is questionable. Hennessey, less romantic 

 than we, reminded us that it was time to occupy the 

 defile, by which the deer, if found, and driven from the 

 lowlands, would pass within our range. Thus recalled, 

 we looked at the immediate vicinage of the cairn. It 

 was a wilderness of moss and bog, and granite, barren 

 beyond description, and connected with the upper 

 levels of the Alpine ridge, which extended for miles at 

 either side, by a narrow chain of rock, which seemed 

 more like the topping of a parapet than the apex of a 

 line of hills. Indeed, a more desolate region could not 

 be well imagined ; no sign of vegetation appeared, 

 if scathed lichens and parched and withered flag-grass 

 be excepted. The mountain cattle were rarely seen 

 upon these heights, and the footmarks upon the softer 

 surface were those of the deer and goats. Hennessey 

 discovered the tracks of a herd of the larger species, 

 which, from his acute observations, had evidently 

 crossed the ridge since sunrise, and must, from their 

 numerous traces, have amounted to at least a dozen. 



While we still cast a " longing, lingering look " at 

 a scene which, I lament to say, I shall most probably 

 never be permitted to view again a boy rose from the 

 valley towards the south, and hastened at full speed 

 to join us. His communication was soon made, and, 

 like the shepherd's at the cabin, pantomime rather than 

 speech conveyed its import. His tidings were momen- 

 tous ; the deer had moved from the place in which they 

 had been first discovered, and were now within one 



