172 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [CHAP. xxi. 



again, if he met an old woman when starting on any deer-stalk- 

 ing excursion. The young pretty girl, however, was a good 

 omen in his eyes. We passed through the woods, seeing here 

 and there a roebuck standing gazing at us as we crossed some 

 grassy glade where he was feeding. On the rocks near the top 

 of the woods, Donald took me to look at a trap he had set, and 

 in it we found a beautiful marten cat, which we killed, and hid 

 amongst the stones another good omen in Donald's eyes. 



On we went, taking a careful survey of the ground here and 

 there. At a loch whose Gaelic name I do not remember, we 

 saw a vast number of wild ducks, and at the further extremity of 

 it a hind and calf feeding. We waited here for some time, and I 

 amused myself with watching the two deer as they fed, unconscious 

 of our neighbourhood, and from time to time drank at the burn 

 which supplied the loch. We then passed over a long dreary 

 tract of brown and broken ground, till we came to the picturesque- 

 looking place where we expected to find the deer a high 

 conical hill, rising out of rather flat ground, which gave it an 

 appearance of being of a greater height than it really was. We 

 took a most careful survey of the slope on which Donald expected 

 to see the deer. Below was an extensive level piece of heather 

 with a burn running through it in an endless variety of windings, 

 and fringed with green rushes and grass, which formed a strong 

 contrast to the dark-coloured moor through which it made its 

 way, till it emptied itself into a long narrow loch, beyond which 

 rose Bar Cletbrich and some more of the highest mountains in 

 Scotland. In vain we looked and looked, and Donald at last 

 .sliut up his telescope in despair : u They are no' here the day," 

 was his remark. ' But what is that, Donald ?" said I, pointing 

 to some bluish-looking object I saw at some distance from us 

 rising out of the heather. The glass was turned towards it, and 

 after having been kept motionless for some time, he pronounced 

 it to be the head and neck of a hind. I took the glass, and 

 while I was looking at it, I saw a fine stag rise suddenly from 

 some small hollow near her, stretch himself, and lie down again. 

 Presently six more hinds, and a two-year old stag got up, and 

 after walking about for a few minutes, they, one by one, lay 

 down again, but every one seemed to take up a position com- 

 manding a vie\v of the whole country. We crept back a few 



