REMINISCENCES OF A ROSS-SHIRE FOREST. Ill 



what you had previously heard. Duncan's " sixty 

 yairds" is now, "as far as I could judge, about a 

 hundred and ten ; " the quietly feeding stag is de- 

 scribed as a " restless brute ; " " the beggar was 

 evidently suspicious, and just going to bolt," and 

 " he wasn't much of a beast after all ! " Those dis- 

 crepancies in the evidence would puzzle any Q.C. that 

 ever wore a wig. ' I remember a sporting parson com- 

 ing up one season. I knew him to be a first-rate shot. 

 At " rocketing " pheasants or " driven grouse " he 

 had few superiors, but somehow or other he didn't 

 answer in the forest ; his nerve seemed to fail him in 

 presence of the "antlered monarch." The first day 

 he was out he came home very late " clean," as they 

 say of a Dundee whaler after an unlucky season. He 

 told us he had had a shot. "VVe commiserated him 

 much, and asked for particulars. After hearing his 

 narrative, I came to the conclusion that had he killed 

 that stag, the deeds of Horatio Ross would have been 

 utterly and absolutely eclipsed. 



" I am disgusted, old chap," I exclaimed with 

 effusion, " that you didn't get him : that icould have 

 been a shot ! " 



AVith the morrow, however, cool reflection came ; 

 and feeling that in a case of this sort corroborative 

 evidence is very satisfactory, when you can get it, I 

 thought I would walk up the glen and see " old 

 Duncan," the gillie who had been out with him. I 

 had been told off that day to shoot grouse, an occupa- 



