32 



Erchless and Farley, till on the 29th I told Fraser 

 to try on Erchless, whilst I did the same on Farley. 

 Needless to say, he succeeded, and got a good stag 

 with a poor head, an 8-pointer, weighing 15 stone 

 13 pounds. This changed the luck, for on the 

 1st of October I got a small stag, a 9-pointer 

 weighing 12 stone 7 pounds, on the east part 

 of Erchless close to Loch Fada, after a stalk 

 of innumerable detours and crawls. However, 

 finally Eraser's patience triumphed, and he got me 

 to a ridge overlooking a valley into which the deer 

 had disappeared, and where he said we should get 

 the shot as they ascended the opposite hill of the 

 valley about 150 yards across. Sure enough, there 

 they were, and, making no mistake, our toil was 

 rewarded, and we went marching home wi' great 

 content. 



The 4th of October was and is likely to be 

 the red-letter day of my stalking career. It 

 was fine, but very cold, with a strong north-west 

 wind and falling glass, and Fraser said snow was 

 coming, and as there were a lot of deer on the 

 ground, we had better go to Glengowrie; so we 

 took two ponies, as it is a long tramp. When 

 we got to the ridge which divides the near and 

 distant part of Erchless, we spied some good 

 beasts about a mile away on the top of the Hare 

 Mountain, and after an easy stalk got to about 

 100 yards from where a good 8-pointer was lying; 

 there we lay and shivered for half an hour till our 



