THE SHOT. 203 



edge of the rock, there I saw the deer just beneath me, 

 and within eighty yards. 



Looking round with no little impatience for Alister, 

 I beckoned him to hurry forward, and then singled out 

 the best deer I could see, ready to fire, the moment he 

 should join me. In another instant he was at my side, 

 a pause followed ot some forty or fifty seconds and 

 then the rocks on all sides rang with the report of two 

 rifles, and the herd tore madly down the pass leaving 

 behind them two fine fat hinds which fell dead without 

 a struggle, and slowly rolling down the hill in the wake 

 of the fast disappearing herd, were presently stopped 

 in their course by a projecting rock where both lay 

 lifeless together. We now descended to admire our 

 booty, Gillespie expeditiously relieved the bodies of 

 their intestines, and other parts which should never be 

 suffered to remain in a deer many minutes after death, 

 and then placing them for concealment under a rock, 

 where the gillies would be able to find them, we started 

 for home, a walk of ten miles, well satisfied with the 

 conclusion of the day's sport. 



The way home was enlivened by anecdotes from 

 both Alister and the fox-hunter. The latter told one 

 curious circumstance, from the hoard of his own 

 experience, which had been suggested to his memory 

 by the awkward position in which we had to-day found 

 ourselves^ when, forced to lie down in the middle of a 

 swamp, as described above. Here it is. He had gone 

 out in search of a hind for the Laird's larder, and early 

 in the day discovered a magnificent beast lying alone, 

 but in a most difficult position. She had chosen a spot 

 whence she could command, either by sight or smell, 

 the whole of the circumjacent ground ; and though an. 

 irregularity in the surface enabled him to creep up 

 within 300 yards of her front, a nearer approach was 



