FALLOW-DEER AT HOME 25 



more comfortable position, just as Watts's sluggard 

 " turns his sides and his shoulders and his heavy 

 head" for the same purpose. Poor, pretty, per- 

 secuted beasts, I know you are mischievous, for I 

 have seen you with salmon in your mouths, and 

 poaching at the stake-nets ; but an angler should 

 not be too hard on you for that last fault, con- 

 sidering the way you tear them. How is it that, 

 although I am always vowing that I never will 

 shoot at you again, 1 I never can resist if I get an 

 opportunity. It is not for your blubber, for I 

 leave that to the boatmen ; and it is not for your 

 skin, for I have two, and should not know what 

 to do with any more. I hope it is because of the 

 well-founded confidence I feel in the probability 

 of your escape, unless I get a chance at you on 

 the rocks, stalking you from that very island oppo- 

 site by creeping down the burn. It is surprising 

 to think how many seals I have seen shot at in 

 the water by good rifle-shots, and how few I have 

 seen one penny the worse. 



However, I am not after seals now, and I can 

 watch those at my leisure with no bloodthirsty 

 designs, and I look up and down the loch to see 

 whether there are any more dog-like heads in 

 view ; for there is scarcely a ripple anywhere, as 

 what wind there is, is from the west. I turn my 

 glass on different distant objects in the water, 

 to disclose in succession a flock of mergansers 



1 I never shoot at seals now. This was written a long time ago. 



