OPEN-GROUND HUNTING 287 



Thus I hoped to obtain a good photograph, as both the 

 light and the wind were favourable. I had hardly got 

 into position when the does got up and raced past me, and 

 then, seeing the stag about to follow, I saw his horns facing 

 me for the first time. As he came on he looked better 

 and better, so at last I put down the camera and picked 

 up the rifle, not a moment too soon, when I killed him 

 with a shot as he went by. He proved to be a good thirty- 

 nine pointer, with thick, though somewhat short horns. 



After dinner we entered a different country to the bare 

 stony ridges of Shoe Hill. Now it was all rolling hills, 

 with small forests on either flank, and numerous little ponds 

 and marshes, perfect early autumn deer ground. By-and- 

 by I saw a big stag chasing two or three does out of one 

 of these woods, and by a judicious cross cut caught him 

 with the camera at twenty yards as he pursued his restless 

 wives. 



This stalking with a camera is great fun. You have 

 many failures, and a few successes, whilst the best chance 

 always occurs on a rainy day or when the camera has been 

 left in camp. One evening, about a fortnight after this, 

 I saw a small calf on a stony ridge above a lake. As it 

 kept looking back into a deep hollow, I knew the mother 

 and probably others were there. It was blowing hard, so 

 Steve and I got within five yards of the calf just as it threw 

 up its tail and dashed off down-wind. Now, the mother 

 and a great heavy stag who was her companion had just 

 caught a glimpse of the white flag when it was raised, 

 and so started to pursue the path followed by the calf. 

 Steve and I lay behind a large boulder directly in their path, 

 so that the pair actually passed our station at a distance of 

 three yards — a unique opportunity for a picture which could 



