42 ERCHLESS AND FARLEY, 1917 



all my attention to Farley, where we were terribly 

 behindhand ten stags to get in four days. I 

 could not go out on the llth, so let Stone have a 

 try, and he got a nice beast with a poor head on 

 the rocks behind the wood, an 8-pointer weighing 

 14 stone 4 pounds. 



On the 12th John Stone and I went to the West 

 Hill. There were plenty of deer about, and we 

 decided to go for a good stag that was lying down 

 by himself close to the march on the south side of 

 the West Hill. We got close up to him, 50 to 60 

 yards, and as he would not rise I fired and hit him 

 rather far behind the shoulder, probably in the 

 stomach, and he sprang up, and then stood looking 

 very sick and as though he must fall. However, 

 he did not, and I wanted to give him another shot, 

 but Stone advised not, as it would disturb the 

 ground, and he was certain he was done for. Bad 

 advice, as events proved, for after a minute or 

 two he began very slowly to totter off, and con- 

 tinually stopping as though about to fall. 

 Gradually it dawned on us that he was not going 

 to fall, and that he was getting stronger, so we 

 jumped up and pursued; but his pace improved, 

 and after a stern chase, till we were utterly blown, 

 halfway round the West Hill we had to own our- 

 selves beaten, and he disappeared out of sight over 

 the march into Erchless. Sadly and sorrowfully 

 we lunched close to Loch Fada in sight of several 

 lots of deer lying down and feeding on the west 



