214 FORAYS AMONG SALMON AND DEER. 



hart, rose from the heather at the foot of a rock, nearly 

 three hundred yards in front, and, without deigning to 

 vouchsafe us more than a hasty glance, crossed over 

 the ledge of rock under which he had been lying, and 

 was immediately lost to view 



Anxious not to leave a wounded beast in all likeli- 

 hood only to die by a painful and lingering death, I 

 fired a hasty shot just as he disappeared, but the bullet 

 flattened against the rock a few feet in his rear, and 

 again he had escaped us. However he was a noble 

 beast, and we were determined, if possible, not to lose 

 him ; loading therefore with all speed, I joined Alister 

 and Hector, as they hurried forward to the spot where 

 he was last seen, in the hopes of watching him till he 

 should again lie down. As we passed the lair he had 

 just left, the blood staining the ground told of the 

 severity of his wound. And now we sat down on a 

 boulder stone, perched curiously at the very summit of 

 a craggy eminence, and began with our glasses to scan 

 the wide stretch of moorland lying before us. 



From the brightness of the sun in front, it was not 

 easy to see any objects distinctly, and from the colour 

 of the ground and the many indentations, and winding 

 seams in its surface caused by the swollen burns in 

 wet weather, a hundred deer might have been within a 

 short distance, and yet have escaped our observation. 

 Hector, however, at length succeeded in discovering 

 the stag, slowly making his way to a part of the ground, 

 where several heads of crag were thrown up to a slight 

 elevation ; ledges of rock which looked as though they 

 had burst through the outer coating of peat, being 

 driven upwards, and almost tilted on end by volcanic 

 agency. There Hector was certain he would again 

 rest, and once more therefore we were off at full speed 

 to make a circuit in the rear of these rocks, and so if 



