FALLOW-DEER AT HOME 35 



after marking his ear in order that we may recog- 

 nise and calculate his growth on some future 

 occasion, and then up with the sail. Two beats 

 take us out of Loch Craignish, and as we watch 

 the setting sun purpling the rocks over Jura, and 

 lazily discuss the pipe of peace, we think of the 

 lines so inimitably illustrated by Caldecott : 



" So they hunted and they hollo'd till the setting of the sun, 

 An' they'd nought to bring away at last, when th' hunting- 

 day was done. 



Then one unto the other said, 'This huntin' doesn't pay, 

 But we'n powler't up an' down a bit an' had a rattlin' day. 



Look ye there ! ' ' 



It must not be supposed that all our expedi- 

 tions are as unsuccessful as the one I have just 

 described. I chose it for description partly be- 

 cause it is an almost literal and exact account 

 of what occurred on the last occasion I was out 

 after the deer, and partly because I thought there 

 was some spark of originality in describing a 

 failure. Many deer are doubtless missed upon the 

 hillside, but few indeed in the smoking-room or in 

 the pages of sporting chronicles. There was one 

 occasion, ever to be marked with white, when, as 

 I occupied the same position, two grand beasts 

 trotted out of the hazel bank between me and the 

 dyke, about sixty yards off, before I had been in 

 my place half-an-hour. I chose the one which 

 had the finest head, and shot him through the neck, 

 and, hastily putting a fresh cartridge into my single- 



