VARIATION IN SPORT. 231 



moss, and, taking a circuit of about three miles at 

 least, appeared on the top of the pass. I then sent 

 Jemmy to start the deer, but he had scarcely moved 

 away when I hooked a large fish. Though in rather 

 a bad place, I trusted to land him by myself, and was 

 busy head and hand in rather a prolonged battle, when 

 boom went the echo, or, rather, the hundred echoes of 

 a shot. On turning in the direction, there was one of 

 the unfortunate stags bowling along over the rocks, 

 and the other eleven rushing past me. Fortunately, 

 the pass is so narrow (I have been there to examine it 

 since, and it is not above six feet wide) that he put the 

 whole charge of shot into the beast's head, and killed 

 him dead at once. 



I got three fish out of the loch that evening before 

 it became a dead calm, and the midges (the only real 

 nuisance in the Highlands) forced us to our hole. 

 There, a stifling cloud of heather smoke soon made 

 them scarce. This cave or hole that I have mentioned 

 once or twice I may as well describe : it is formed by 

 a huge boulder stone, which, along with many thousand 

 others, had fallen from the rock above, and had a 

 large concavity on one side, on which side it rested 

 over some other rocks, knocking a chip out of one end 

 which serves as a doorway. Inside it is about 12 feet 

 by 8 feet, but there is only a space of about a yard 

 square in the centre where a man can stand ; at one 

 corner there is a small opening left between it and its 

 next neighbour which communicates with the air 

 above, and serves as a chimney, and wonderfully well 

 it does, to carry away the smoke. The rock above 

 (from which I said our 1 abitation had fallen) is the 

 grandest I have ever seen. I am sure I do not 

 exaggerate when I say it is 1000 feet perpendicular 

 just over the cave, and so wall-like that it is quite 



