142 THE RETURN HOME. 



deer. We are in a district too hilly to admit of the use 

 of either vehicle or cattle, and accordingly the only 

 mode of transporting the game to the larder, when once 

 slaughtered, is across the brawny shoulders of a High- 

 lander. Now, a good-sized stag is no slight burden; I 

 speak by conjecture, but I should imagine that the 

 weight of either of the two killed yesterday, could not 

 have been less than fifteen or sixteen stone. It is there- 

 fore beyond the powers of any one ordinary man to 

 carry such a load some thirteen or fourteen miles, over 

 ground too rugged to be traversed at any time by any 

 but the powerful and athletic. 



Murdoch then is dismissed on his errand ; while 

 Gillespie, Walter, and I start immediately after an 

 early breakfast, to search for the wounded stag, which 

 disappeared so mysteriously yesterday. 



For two hours we pursued our way without incident. 

 At length a mountain hare crossed our path, having 

 already partially acquired its winter coat of white ; and 

 as the agile animal bounded up the hill-side to our 

 right, springing from rock to rock, it more resembled a 

 tiny flake of snow, rising to the clouds which capped 

 the summits above, than a living thing of earth. 



Gillespie shrewdly remarked that the creature " wad 

 na ha been ganging that gait," unless something else 

 had been on the move to alarm it ; and accordingly we 

 soon discovered two hinds and a stag going away to our 

 left. Had we been even commonly vigilant, we 

 might have had a very fair opportunity for stalking; 

 but the deer seldom frequenting that part of the ground 

 we, had crossed it carelessly, and exposed ourselves to 

 view, when concealment would have cost us little more 

 trouble. We now soon reached the scene of yesterday's 

 adventure ; but though we left not a glen or hollow 



