118 FORAYS AMONG SALMON AND DEER. 



doomed to disappointment, the deer having evidently 

 sought shelter elsewhere. 



We now wound our way up a rocky ravine, at one 

 time the wind blowing from behind, and almost 

 carrying us up the steep without any exertion of our 

 own ; at another time meeting us with such force, 

 that we could make no head against it ; and when it 

 suddenly lulled, we almost fell on our faces, as though 

 some great support had just been withdrawn. Scarcely, 

 perhaps, had we recovered ourselves, when a blast 

 would tear down the pass with such fearful violence, 

 as required all our strength to prevent our being 

 carried bodily down the hill, for a moment actually 

 depriving us of the power of breathing, and producing 

 a choking sensation, akin to that which the swimmer 

 experiences when, as he is tossing among the breakers, 

 he suddenly gets a mouthful of brine, or takes too long 

 a dive in the depths below. 



In the face of such difficulties the ascent was a 

 matter of time and patience, and it was with no 

 feeling of reluctance that, on reaching the top of the 

 ravine, I threw myself on the heather to recover breath, 

 while the fox-hunter, without any signs of distress, 

 quietly seated himself beside me, and began to take 

 his observations. I watched his countenance, as his 

 glass was turned from brae to brae, from gully to gully ; 

 but his stolid expression, so characteristic of the Scot, 

 furnished no clue to the workings of the mind within. 

 I fancied, however, after a time, that his eye seemed 

 to linger, and turn more especially to one spot, but 

 nothing like a smile of satisfaction was to be detected. 

 At length, on my putting the question to him, he 

 replied that he " was seeing the deer," but that they 

 were " unco " hard to get at, and that no calculation 

 as to wind could possibly be made with any certainty 



