THOMAS FRASER 19 



confidence from the moment he takes you in hand, 

 and he gets you so wonderfully close that one is 

 indeed a poor performer if the quarry escapes. 

 It is quite extraordinary how slowly he takes one 

 uphill in fact, one's progress is always very slow 

 with him, as he uses his glass so very frequently 

 not his telescope so very often that, of course, 

 he keeps for the initial spy and for distances 

 but a monocular which he uses for every dip 

 and hollow and round every turn, and which 

 causes very little delay, as it needs no adjustment 

 and each look is only a matter of a few seconds, 

 to make sure all is clear. He is a youngish man, 

 not much over forty, and of spare frame, so he 

 can go for ever, and at a rare pace, too, if he 

 wants to and it is necessary; but as a rule it is his 

 slowness and his caution and his infinite patience 

 and his thoroughness which impress you and make 

 you feel that you are in the hands of a master. 

 And if there is a stag on the ground and you don't 

 get a fairly easy shot at him, the conditions must 

 have been wonderfully adverse and the circum- 

 stances worthy of much thought and mental diges- 

 tion. 



After several heart-breaking days of misses on 

 Farley, on one of which Matheson had got me up 

 to about 150 yards from a solitary stag which was 

 lying in a very difficult spot on one of the bare 

 bits of Farley between the Lily Loch and the West 

 Hill, and which got up after keeping us waiting 



