206 COUNCIL OF WAR. 



in looking towards us, they would find the light too 

 strong to permit of objects being very distinctly seen, 

 and we were therefore tolerably safe of not disturbing 

 them : and if they, on the higher ground, were not dis- 

 turbed, the stags lying below would continue unsus- 

 picious. So far, so good, and now we were at the rock, 

 below which we expected the game to be lying. Alister 

 and I sat down, while Hector crept cautiously forward 

 to reconnoitre. 



After an absence of a few minutes, he rejoined us, 

 with the pleasing information that the stags, fifteen in 

 number, were all there ; but our pleasure somewhat 

 abated, when he added, that they were lying down, 

 quite out of our reach, except as a random shot, and 

 that there was no possibility of approaching nearer. 



What was to be done ? I have said that we were 

 seated on a rock, at the end of a long hollow, flanked 

 by a hill on either side. As we faced the glen below, 

 in which lay the deer, there was to our left a pass, 

 running out between the two peaks of the hill on that 

 side. Now if the deer could be driven up that pass, 

 they must of necessity make their exit within some 

 150 yards of a rock a little to our left, behind which 

 we might be located, and thence secure each of us a 

 hasty shot. To drive deer, however, is anything but 

 an easy task, particularly to drive them with the wind. 

 In the present instance, if disturbed, they would in all 

 probability turn, and try to make their way up wind, 

 in the direction by which they had entered the valley. 

 Still this seemed to be our only chance; for if we 

 waited some hours until they should rise to feed, they 

 would be equally likely to feed away in that direction, 

 and come no nearer our position than they were now. 



After long consultation therefore, when every pro 



