STALKING RESUMED. 183 



handsome as a royal head, is still curious and rather 

 rare. 



I have now given you the substance of our High- 

 lander's remarks, so far as I have thought they would 

 prove interesting. The rest of this chapter must be 

 devoted to an account of our own proceedings in the 

 forest. 



Wednesday. A fair, but cloudy and uncertain-look- 

 ing morning. Setting out soon after daybreak, we 

 made straight for the corrie, hoping to find the deer 

 still within its shelter ; but they had risen earlier than 

 ourselves, and as we came up the glen, were just dis- 

 appearing through the Bealloch Mohr. We watched 

 them as they passed the horizon by ones and twos, and 

 then knowing that it was useless to follow, as they were 

 already so far in advance, and would shortly be beyond 

 the march, we turned our steps in the opposite 

 direction. 



The clouds were resting on the hill-tops, and though 

 we were not yet in a snow-storm, still all around began 

 to assume a, threatening aspect. For an hour or more 

 we roamed on without seeing any game, though we 

 came across traces of some which had passed in the 

 night ; and at length, on reaching the crest of a short 

 ascent, we suddenly came upon a hind and stag lying 

 in a snug hollow. Though we dropped to the ground 

 at once, and though the wind was blowing directly in 

 our teeth, the stag was evidently uneasy, and, rising 

 slowly from his lair, stood looking anxiously around 

 him. For nearly an hour we remained motionless and 

 prostrate, Gillespie alone watching the game. The 

 stag, he said, was but a small one, out of condition, as 

 indeed they always are after the rutting season, and 

 bearing but a poor head, while the hind was a very 



