90 DEER-STALKING. CH. XXV. 



nificent stag I had never seen, and his bright red 

 colour and white-tipped horns showed me that he 

 was the very animal I had so often seen and wished 

 to get. He ran on without slackening his pace for 

 at least a hundred yards, then suddenly fell with 

 a crash to the ground, his horns rattling against 

 the stones. I knew he was perfectly dead, so, 

 calling the dog, ran up to him. The stag was 

 quite motionless, and lay stretched out where he 

 fell, without a single struggle. I found on open- 

 ing him that the ball had passed through the 

 lower part of his heart — a wound I should have 

 imagined sufficient to have deprived any animal 

 of life and motion instantaneously. But I have 

 shot several deer through the heart, and have 

 observed that when hit low they frequently ran 

 from twenty to eighty yards. If, however, the 

 ball has passed through the upper part of the 

 heart, or has cut the large blood-vessels imme- 

 diately above it, death has been instantaneous, 

 the animal dropping without a struggle. 



Having duly admired and examined the poor 

 stag, not, I must own, without feeling compunction 

 at having put an end to his life, I set to work bleed- 

 ing and otherwise preparing him for being left on 

 the hill till the next day, secure from attacks of 

 ravens and eagles ; then, having taken my land- 



