258 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [CHAP, xxxiv 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



Coursing Deer. 



THOUGH I am by no means of opinion that running red-deer 

 with the rough deer hound is so exciting or so satisfactory a sport 

 as stalking the noble animal, and attacking him in his fastnesses 

 with the aid only of a rifle, I have sometimes seen runs with the 

 deer-hounds which fully answered all my expectations. It much 

 oftener happens, however, that after the first start nothing more 

 is seen of dogs or deer until they are found at bay in some rocky 

 burn or stream, the whole run having taken place out of sight of 

 the sportsman. Moreover, the dogs run a great risk of being 

 disabled and injured either by the stag or by the sharp and rugged 

 rocks and stones over which they take their headlong course. 

 The deer-hound is so noble and handsome an animal, that, inde- 

 pendently of his actual and marketable value, he is invariably a 

 pet and favourite of his master, so that any accident which 

 happens to him is the more regretted. With good management 

 the experienced stalker can generally secure his dogs from run- 

 ning at young deer or hinds unfit to be killed. Indeed, many 

 deer-hounds have a wonderful instinct in singling out the biggest 

 head of horns in a herd of deer, and in sticking to this one, re- 

 gardless of the rest of the herd. It will often happen, however, 

 that the dogs set off after some hind or young stag, who leads 

 both them and you away a long chace, unsatisfactory both in its 

 commencement and termination, disturbing the ground and taking 

 up twice as much time as would be required to kill the fine old 

 ten-antlered stag, whose head you covet for your lobby, and 

 whose haunches you wish to send to your English friend, to 

 show him what size a mountain-fed stag will grow to. A large 

 heavy hart is also much sooner blown and brought to bay than a 

 younger and lighter deer. 



The breed of deer-hounds, which had nearly become extinct, 

 or at any rate was very rare a few years ago, has now become 



