SCHOOL FOR GENERALSHIP. 149 



where indeed could he find a better school, wherein to 

 acquire, not in theory only, but in practice, the art and 

 highest requirements of generalship ? Nowhere is 

 sagacity more requisite ; nowhere does promptitude in 

 action tell more forcibly on the result, or fertility of 

 resource more constantly bring its reward. To scan at 

 a glance the several features of the ground before him, 

 to mark the windings of each burn, the sweep of every 

 brae, or the bearings of every undulation, and so to 

 form his plans, without previous opportunity for con- 

 sideration, so, as it were, to play the cards he holds as 

 will best tell upon the result, this is the deer-stalker's 

 constant occupation ; this the exercise to which he 

 devotes his deepest thoughts and highest energies. 



Friday^ a fine day, though rather too windy, 

 Murdoch is despatched home, to procure additional 

 hands, to assist in the conveyance of the slaughtered 

 deer. We are in a district too hilly to admit of the use 

 of either vehicle or cattle, and accordingly the only 

 mode of transporting the game to the larder, when once 

 slaughtered, is across the brawny shoulders of a High- 

 lander. Now, a good-sized stag is no slight burden ; I 

 speak by conjecture, but I should imagine that the 

 weight of either of the two killed yesterday, could not 

 have been less than fifteen or sixteen stone. It is there- 

 fore beyond the powers of any one ordinary man to 

 carry such a load some thirteen or fourteen miles, over 

 ground too rugged to be traversed at any time by any 

 but the powerful and athletic. 



Murdoch then is dismissed on his errand ; while 

 Gillespie, Walter, and I start immediately after an 

 early breakfast, to search for the wounded stag, which 

 disappeared so mysteriously yesterday. 



For two hours we pursued our way without incident. 

 At length a mountain hare crossed our path, having 



