DEAD DEER. 191 



out distinctly into the sky, as they crossed the very crest 

 of the hill. Those on the left were considerably lower 

 and nearer ; but as they were making for ground less 

 suited for stalking purposes than the opposite herd, 

 we at once started after the latter. This was an 

 undertaking of no trifling nature. The pass through 

 which the deer had wound their way, was a steep slope, 

 about half a mile in extent from bottom to top, and 

 covered with a thick sprinkling of loose stones and 

 craigs, which the frosts and thaws of successive ages 

 had detached from the cliffs above. In some parts 

 huge dj^kes, as it were, of ragged rock belted the 

 passage, in such a manner that in the distance further 

 advance seemed impossible ; but a nearer approach 

 invariably disclosed some projecting shelf, or narrow 

 fissure by which, carefully avoiding the dizzying effect 

 of a downward glance, we could still continue a perilous 

 ascent. In one case this had proved too difficult 

 even for a deer, as we gathered from the carcase of a 

 young stag, which lay rotting a little way below one of 

 these bars of rock. He had evidently lost his footing 

 in the attempt to cross, and being precipitated down- 

 wards, and tossed from rock to rock, had eventually 

 broken his neck. He lay on the heather, his head 

 buried under his ribs, and a large vent in his side ; 

 originally no doubt the flesh cut by some sharp stone 

 in his descent, but subsequently enlarged by the fox or 

 the raven. Bather more than halfway up the ascent 

 we were driven by a pelting shower of rain and sleet to 

 seek shelter under cover of one of these rocky battle- 

 ments ; and half an hour was here agreeably spent in 

 admiring some curious petrifactions formed by the 

 water oozing through the section of the limestone, and 

 in gathering varieties of the fern tribe which had 



