86 AUTUMNS ON THE SPEY. 



appears to be the result of hereditary instinct 

 aided by acute observation. These reflections 

 have been forced upon me by the experience of 

 a single day's stalking in Glenfiddich forest last 

 week. Everything looked favourable on that 

 morning as I left the lodge with the forester, 

 McKay, attended by his brother John, the gillie, 

 leading the two deer hounds. A steady breeze, 

 neither too light nor too strong, was blowing right 

 down the glen from the south-west ; the day was 

 perhaps occasionally a little too bright, as the 

 sun every now and then peeped out from the grey 

 clouds, but we expected no difficulty in finding 

 deer, especially as a large herd had been alarmed 

 on the previous evening in the adjoining forest of 

 Blackwater, and had been seen to cross over the 

 ridge of Cook's Cairn to the upper part of Glen- 

 fiddich, in which direction we were now proceed- 

 ing. 



After following the course of the stream on the 

 right bank for a couple of miles, we halted, and 

 examining with our glasses the sides of the corries 

 opposite, we soon discovered several small herds, 

 consisting principally of hinds, and the few stags 

 that were among them did not seem, to the 

 experienced eye of the forester, sufficiently 

 tempting, either by spread of horn or size of 



