EEMINISCENCES OF A ROSS-SHIRE FOREST. 141 



The wind could not possibly have been worse, but 

 by making a wide circuit to our right, going to the 

 very top of the hill, and coming down some hundreds 

 of yards beyond where the deer lay, we were confident 

 we should be too many for them. We left the lodge 

 about half-past eight in a sweltering hot morning, 

 and in an hour and a half thereafter we were on the 

 top of the hill shivering in two or three inches of 

 snow. Several times on the way up we halted and 

 spied the hill most carefully ; but it was evident so 

 AVC concluded that the deer we were stalking were 

 the sole representatives of their species in the neigh- 

 bourhood. Crawling gently over the sky-line we 

 began to descend the hill in single file. We hadn't 

 gone far till, to our intense surprise, we saw the stag 

 with his hinds coming into view from behind a dark 

 ledge of rocks far away to our right. 



" What has moved them, Donald ?" I asked. 



" I cannot make out, sir," was the reply. 



We did not wish to disturb the ground they Avere 

 making for, so AVB determined to giA r e it up. AVe 

 looked the " big burn " carefully on our Avay back, 

 but discovered nothing, and got home again, very 

 much disgusted, about three o'clock. Entering the 

 drawing - room, I found " the lady of the forest " 

 engaged in the study of the ' Morning Post.' 



Looking up from her paper, she remarked, " Well, 

 you've made a pretty mess of it," a pleasant greeting 

 to the baffled deer-stalker. 



