90 AUTUMNS ON THE SPEY. 



down the corrie, quite away from the stag, 

 uttering all the time his loud, half-crowing, half- 

 screaming cry of alarm. Looking up at the same 

 instant I had the mortification of seeing the 

 deer bounding away at his best pace up the hill, 

 and could only gaze helplessly at him until he 

 disappeared over the brow. As for the forester, 

 this was too usual an occurrence to disturb his 

 characteristic equanimity, or to elicit any audible 

 demonstration of feeling on his part. 



We had still the big stag in prospect, and 

 another hour brought us over the ridge and round 

 the hills to the top of the corrie in which we had 

 seen him and the herd of deer that accompanied 

 him. How my guide hit off the place where it 

 was necessary for us to halt and crawl up the 

 slope to our left, seemed marvellous to me, but 

 when on the summit itself I saw at a glance that 

 he had conducted me to the very spot, although 

 I could discover no landmark of any kind that 

 could have assisted him. Here we slowly raised 

 our heads, and noiselessly opening our glasses 

 examined the sides of the corrie. There was 

 " the muckle hart," still lying down, and we saw 

 that most of the hinds we had previously observed 

 between him and our present position had for- 

 tunately grazed nearer the river on either side of 



