A WINTER CAMPAIGN IN PONANA. 359 



This (lay again proved a lucky one — several deer and a 

 lynx, besides minor game, being piled on the panniers of 

 the carrier-ponies before night. The lynx was a specially 

 handsome beast, an old male with bushy whiskers, his 

 tawny pelt boldly splashed with dark spots. He was killed 

 by a rifle-ball when going at top speed across a glade. The 

 writer's mind that evening was, nevertheless, tinged with 

 regret. While posted as " point-gun," amidst some lovely 

 but very broken forest ground at a remote corral, I observed 

 an object move slightly among some young pine-scrub in a 

 hollow on my front. It was the antlers of a stag; and soon, 

 by the forest of ivory tips, I perceived they belonged to a 

 hart of no ordinary degree. Presently the owner emerged 

 from the covert and for several seconds stood, fully 

 exposed, at 100 yards, an enormous beast, looking as black 

 as coal against a background of dead yellow flags. He 

 presented a certain shot ; but, alas ! was still irWiin the 

 heat ; and though the stag stood in a slight hollow where 

 rising ground behind rendered the shot perfectly safe, I 

 hesitated to break the rules, and the chance was lost — the 

 grand beast going away wide to the right. The vision of 

 that stag, with his broad and branching head and unnum- 

 bered points, his massive frame and glossy coat, haunted 

 me awake and asleep that night and for many another. 



A few weeks afterwards, when " still-hunting " with a 

 single Spanish companion in the same district, we came 

 somewhat unexpectedly (it was only 4 p.m.), on a stag 

 quietly splashing through a marsh-belt that separated two 

 patches of forest. The beast was more than half a mile 

 oft' ; but on reaching the place after a detour, we observed 

 him standing under the shade of some trees 400 yards 

 distant. On putting the glass on him, to my intense joy, 

 I recognized my old friend of a month ago — there he stood 

 flicking at the flies, the lilack stag beyond a shadow of 

 doubt ! A nearer direct approach was not possible ; but 

 Jose suggested that by going round in a wide circuit and 

 giving the stag his wind, he would probably move him my 

 way. This manoeuvre we proceeded to carry out, and in 

 half an hour's time I had the satisfaction of observing the 



