DEER STALKING. 229 



defeated, and the insurrection had been put down, 

 many of the guns which had been distributed among the 

 peasantry, were buried, or effectually concealed ; and 

 they have been used in poaching and wild-fowl shooting 

 to the present time. The French barrels are said to 

 throw shot much better than those of English muskets. 

 I have never seen their relative merits proven, but 

 imagine that the superiority of the former is owing to 

 their greater length. 



From its very base, Carrig-a-binniogh presents a 

 different surface to the moorlands which environ it ; 

 heath is no more seen, and in its place the mountain's 

 rugged sides are clothed with lichen and wild grasses. 

 The face of the hill is broken and irregular, and the 

 ascent rendered extremely disagreeable by multitudes 

 of loose stones which, being lightly bedded in the soil, 

 yield to the pressure of the traveller's foot, and, of 

 course, increase his difficulties. 



After the first hundred yards had been gallantly 

 surmounted, we halted by general consent to recover 

 breath. Again, we resumed our labour, and, with 

 occasional pauses, plodded on " our weary way." As 

 we ascended, the hill became more precipitous, the grass 

 shorter, and the hands were as much employed as the 

 feet. The halts were now more frequent ; and each 

 progression towards the summit shorter after every 

 pause. " To climb the trackless mountain all unseen" 

 is very poetical, no doubt, but it is also, I regret to add, 

 amazingly fatiguing, and a task for men of thews and 

 sinews of no ordinary strength. But we were determined 

 and persevered — '' en avant^' was the order of the day ; 

 on we progressed, slowly but continuously ; the steepest 

 face of the hill was gradually overcome, and a wide 



