OUR FIRST STAG ON ERCHLESS 17 



spoilt as a sanctuary for the deer in fact, we 

 hardly saw, much less got a stag, either in the 

 wood or on Farley till well after the middle of 

 September, and I was in despair added to which, 

 the one or two shots I did get I missed ingloriously, 

 and Matheson had begun to mutter things about 

 my shooting and the wonderful things he had 

 heard about 1914 and 1915. So I began to think 

 of pastures new and fresh Elysian fields, and 

 naturally my fancy lightly turned to Erchless, 

 on which my distracted gaze had often been 

 riveted; and finding it unlet, I was lucky enough 

 to secure the rights of killing seven stags and 

 stalking under the guidance of Thomas Fraser. 

 The 22nd of September was our first day out; 

 Susan was of course with me, and our two ghillies 

 were Jimmy Johnston and Willie Mackintosh. 

 We could find nothing shootable before lunch, 

 but after lunch Fraser came to me and said he 

 had spied a single shootable beast lying down in 

 a gully just at the entrance of the sanctuary and 

 that a single shot would not disturb the sanctuary, 

 and so we had better try for him. The stalk was 

 very easy, as he was lying down halfway up the side 

 of a deep ravine, and we had only to creep up 

 behind the other side of the ravine till we were 

 opposite him, when we were about 70 yards from 

 him, as the ravine was very narrow. I got a 

 comfortable rest, and determined, with Eraser's 

 concurrence, not to wait for him to get up, as we 



