WILD CATS. 255 



return for a trifling donation, he pressed upon me the 

 acceptance of a fine deer-skin which he produced from 

 his wallet. " He had another for the master," he said, 

 " and he would bring it to him, when he returned from 

 the hospital." 



" And pray, my friend, how did you get these skins ?" 

 The question puzzled the wounded man. " I found 

 them dead after the great snow last year." 



" After a lump of lead," quoth the otter-killer, " had 

 made a fracture in the hide ; " and he pointed to the 

 orifice in the skin, where, evidently, a ball had per- 

 forated. 



" Alas ! " said the Priest, " the snow is always fatal 

 to the red deer. They are obliged to leave the upper 

 range, and come down the villages :* and there are, 

 unluckily, too many of the old French guns in the country 

 still, and then they are unfortunately busy." 



By the by, speaking of the snow, a very curious 

 circumstance occurred, during its long continuance in 

 1822. 



A fine hind, accompanied by a stout fawn, travelled 

 across the lowlands in search of pasturage, which the 

 deep snow had rendered unattainable in the mountains. 

 Pressed by the severity of the weather, she at last 

 established herself in a green field which was within 

 sight of the windows of the Lodge. For four weeks, 

 during which the storm continued, she remained there 

 in safety ; for the wild visitors were protected by the 

 commands of " the Master " : and from being undis- 

 turbed, continued in the place they had first selected. 



* By a village a very few houses are denominated, and a stranger 

 would be sadly disappointed if he formed his ideas of their extent 

 on the English scale. 



