EAGLE SHOT. 225 



descending a few hundred yards we were in compara- 

 tive calm, and close to where I had seen the eagle ; so, 

 leaving Jemmy to rest, Gillespie and I went forward 

 to stalk him, fully confident that he was there nor 

 were we disappointed. In five minutes I was within 

 forty yards of him, looking at him through a hole 

 between two stones. There he stood on the sheep, 

 lazily pulling off a mouthful of wool occasionally and 

 letting it blow away ; he would then look inquiringly 

 all round, and then have a bite at the meat. I watched 

 him perhaps for ten minutes, and do not know how 

 soon I should have tired of it had I not remembered 

 that the river was right below me, and I imagined the 

 fishes looking up at me upbraidingly for neglecting them 

 so long so I levelled the gun, and bang went the 

 contents of No. 1. As I expected, the eagle rolled off 

 the sheep ; but (as I did not expect) he got up again, 

 and, quietly spreading his immense wings, floated 

 majestically away in the eye of the wind as if nothing 

 had happened, when bang went No. 2, but with no 

 other apparent effect than causing him to start and 

 turn on edge. Away he went as straight as a line for 

 Ben Fionan, leaving me with something of the feelings 

 of Lord Ullin. But he had not gone a quarter of a 

 mile when something went wrong with him, and down 

 he went like a shot into the strath below a fall of, I 

 should say, 1000 feet. He fell on the opposite side of 

 the river. I never did anything that I regretted more 

 than shooting that beautiful, and to me harmless, bird. 

 My belief is, that even where eagles do most harm they 

 more than counterbalance it, for they destroy many 

 times more hares than lambs ; to game they do very 

 little injury, and without them, the Highlands lose half 

 their charm. 



Well, I must say I have been giving rather a queer 



