270 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [CHAP, xxxre. 



There was not a breath of wind blowing from any direction, 

 everything was as calm as it could possibly be, so that although 

 we had no fear of being scented by the stag, we had to take the 

 extremes! care not to make the least noise in going to our place 

 of ambuscade. We held the dogs in our handkerchiefs as the 

 quickest way of slipping them. The stag was easily seen with- 

 out much risk of his observing us, as we looked through a crevice 

 in the rocks. 



After waiting an anxious half hour or more, we saw the deer 

 suddenly spring up, and, after standing at gaze for a moment, 

 trot up the hill, but not exactly in our direction. He came to a 

 flat spot, and then halted again, and looked earnestly down into 

 the glen. The shepherd was now in full view, and the deer 

 having looked at him fixedly for a minute, seemed to recognise 

 an old and harmless acquaintance ; and then turning, trotted 

 deliberately, at no great pace, straight towards us. We heard 

 every step he took as he trotted up the hard hill-side ; now and 

 then he crossed a sloping piece of loose gravel which rattled as 

 his hard hoofs struck the stones, and at one time he had to 

 pick his way through a wet splashy piece of marsh, which he 

 did deliberately and slowly, occasionally looking round at the 

 shepherd below him. At this time we could not move or lift 

 our heads for fear of being seen, but had to wait till the deer had 

 passed the rocks amongst which we were concealed, that we 

 might let slip the hounds at a distance of about thirty or forty 

 yards. The deer was now close to us, not more than ten yards 

 off, but we did not want to let the dogs go for fear of turning 

 him back again into the valley from which he had come, where 

 the ground was not nearly so favourable for the dogs as the slope 

 on the other side of us. We heard him tramp past us as he 

 trotted slowly along on the other side of the rocks behind which 

 we were concealed. The next moment he had cleared the rocky 

 ground, and was in full view about thirty yards from us, on a 

 wide expanse of good heather-ground. The dogs saw him too, 

 and getting to our feet, we slipped them. 



With one affrighted glance behind him, away went the stag, 

 at first along the top of the slope, as if anxious to keep above 

 the dogs ; but finding himself hard pressed, he turned his head 

 down the hill, and the race began. Down they went, the dogs 



