DEER STALKIXG. 311 



DEER STALKING. 

 FORESTER.* 



By Jove ! we are upon them. Tread lightly, 

 crouch closely, speak lowly, breathe softly, while 

 we examine the situation of the herd with our 

 glasses, and the hill-men go round to give the deer 

 their wind and drive them to us. 



SOUTHRON. 



Amongst so many scores of hinds how few harts ! 

 there are some large beasts, but not one good head. 

 How can I bear off a trophy from such a herd ? I 

 would have the horns of my first hart " hung up 

 like monuments " memorials of what I saw and 

 did in the North to relieve the tedium of after 

 hours of sluggish ease and inglorious repose. There 

 is nothing here in the shape of horn that a cutler 

 would give you half-a-crown for. 



FORESTER. 



Look lower down the glen : there are at least three 

 harts royal ; one has a crowned, another a palmed 

 top, and another magnificent creature ! his horns 

 are neither crowned, nor palmed, nor yet exactly 

 forked, but irregular, as those of most old harts are. 

 He is so much larger than the rest, that if we 

 wound him, I think I can trace him by his slot, 

 though he keep up with the herd. Now he turns 



* The idea of giving this sketch in dialogue was suggested by a 

 late publication. It is a mode of writing not ill-adapted to an ex- 

 planation of some of the niceties of deer stalking an art which can 

 only be learned thoroughly on forest-ground. 



