THE SWITCH'S DANCE-PRELUDE 51 



wait, which we proceeded to do as patiently as 

 possible, with the aid of lunch and a couple of 

 pipes. At 2.30 Fraser said the position was no 

 better, rather worse, as the herd had broken up 

 into two lots, with an interval of about a quarter 

 of a mile between them, our stag being in the 

 front lot, as they were feeding south, the wind 

 being due south. So we decided to make a long 

 detour almost down into Glengowrie and try and 

 get round and come up between the two lots. We 

 managed this all right with the help of a long 

 crawl over the last 200 or 300 yards, leaving 

 Susan and Jimmy Johnston when we began the 

 crawl behind a small ridge ; and then, after all our 

 efforts, found our further progress was stopped by 

 two or three straggling hinds from the front lot, 

 and our stag and the rest of his lot rapidly feeding 

 over the ridge and disappearing under the spying 

 cairn whence we had toiled so we were much 

 worse off than before we started, and time was 

 creeping on. Once more we cast back and made 

 a detour round the top of the Hare Hill, picking 

 up Susan and Jimmy en route, and so got to the 

 ridge over which they had fed, and found them 

 about a mile farther on feeding and lying down 

 at the foot of a steep bit of rock almost on the 

 Farley March. By this time it was 5 o'clock, so 

 we decided to move them farther into Farley and 

 leave them for to-morrow. And then shortly 

 afterwards it occurred to me that we might get 



