BALKED BY A BLIZZARD 79 



as good as a sanctuary ; and even in the good old 

 days he would have been something rather out 

 of the common with his fine spread, and when 

 Sandy arrived with the pony he exclaimed, 

 " Never did I think to be taking home the 

 like of yon beast this day " and so say all 

 of us. 



And we took nothing else home till the 30th, 

 though we were very nearly doing so on the 27th, 

 if it hadn't been for a blizzard which descended 

 on us and sent us home with saddened hearts 

 and an empty saddle instead. It happened thus: 

 after a blank morning in the wood we spied two 

 single stags on the heights at the west end of 

 Corriehalloch one was a small beast, the other 

 quite a good one; they were in a very difficult 

 position commanding the entire basin of the big 

 corrie, so we had to retrace our footsteps nearly 

 back to the wood and get in on them from the 

 Lily Loch. There was a very cold north-west 

 wind blowing, and after much toiling and a good 

 deal of crawling we managed to get to about 

 100 yards from them; but only the small fellow 

 was in sight, the big one was lying down behind 

 a rock and only his horns were visible. There was 

 nothing for it but to wait till the little fellow 

 moved or the big one got up; and then the snow 

 began, and we were caught in the worst blizzard 

 we have been in. We stuck it for nearly half an 

 hour, during which time my hat blew off and 



12 



