194 AWKWARD POSITION. 



other animals were feeding in the rear of the hind. Our 

 object now was to discover whether there were any 

 good heads among them ; and as the ground in front 

 was too open to admit of a nearer approach at present, 

 it was determined that we should remain in our present 

 position, in the hopes that the deer would feed their 

 way into some more favourable locality. In this way 

 nearly an hour was passed. Once or twice horns were 

 detected, but we could not discover whether they were 

 those of large stags, or of the younger ones, called in 

 Gaelic "procahs," which frequently continue in the 

 company of hinds when no good stags are in attendance. 

 By degrees, however, all signs of their presence 

 disappeared ; the herd had apparently fed away to a 

 distance, and it was now for us to follow in case their 

 new position should allow a nearer approach. But to 

 make assurance doubly sure we delayed a few minutes 

 longer, that nothing might be lost through precipitation; 

 and then rising to our full height, and carefully looking 

 in every direction with our glasses, that no eyes should 

 be watching us unobserved, we started for the rising 

 ground, behind which they had just disappeared. A 

 slight hollow intervened between us and the position 

 for which we were making. This hollow was a peat 

 bog, still very wet, but, owing to the recent dry 

 weather, fortunately passable. We began to cross it, 

 still anxiously looking about us, when just as we had 

 reached about the middle of it, a deer's back again 

 appeared above the horizon. Here then was an 

 awkward situation a herd of deer within two hundred 

 yards, retreat or advance impossible from the open na- 

 ture of the ground, and though in the middle of a bog, 

 no alternative but to fling ourselves at once upon our 

 faces, notwithstanding its unpleasant dampness. The 



