FOLLOWING THE GAME WITHOUT SUCCESS. 



covered by Gillespie at once ; but the hat, though I 

 myself lost sight of it altogether, was recovered by 

 Murdoch at the distance of a quarter of a mile. 

 Taking this as a seasonable warning of the treatment 

 we might ourselves expect, should we any longer tempt 

 the elements, we commenced the descent at once, 

 purposing to make our way back to the cottage as 

 fast and as safely as we could. We had not, however, 

 made much progress, following each other in a careless 

 line, with feelings somewhat akin to disgust, when, on 

 turning the angle of a huge rock, Gillespie, who led 

 the line, suddenly came to a halt ; my ears were 

 greeted with a grunt and something suspiciously like a 

 Gaelic oath, and following the direction of his eyes, 

 I immediately saw the cause of his discomposure. 

 There, at the distance of two hundred yards, were the 

 three deer for which we had been looking, leisurely 

 trotting away from us. They paused on reaching the 

 crest of the ravine down which they were about 

 to plunge, turned round for one moment to look 

 at us, and then, flinging a parting challenge to us, 

 as they spurred up the ground with their hoofs, 

 disappeared in an instant from our sight. They 

 were a noble hart, a young stag, and a hind; and 

 as they stood on the horizon, thrown out in bold 

 relief into the sky, a more beautiful group it would be 

 difficult to conceive. 



As we followed slowly in their track, picking our 

 way carefully down the almost precipitous descent, we 

 observed a* stag and two hinds, feeding on the opposite 

 side of the valley, in a position apparently very 

 difficult to approach, without attracting their attention, 

 We lingered for some time, hoping that they might 

 feed their way into more favourable ground; but 



