DEER-STALKING. 7 



inferior animal should attend the deer-stalker may be 

 inferred from the fact, that a stag, with his fore leg 

 broken will often beat the fleetest greyhounds. A 

 very singular result of the hind leg of a hart being 

 broken is, that, in running he is almost certain to 

 fracture the other: whether from the additional 

 weight thrown upon it, or some other cause seems not 

 to be known. Red deer are as cunning as foxes, and 

 as game. In illustration of their cunning, they have 

 been observed to keep a dog at bay till he exhausted 

 himself with barking, and then, waiting till he had 

 lapped his fill of water, they bolted away refreshed 

 and rested, and soon left their pursuer behind. It 

 should be borne in mind, that deer are powerless in 

 the water. 



The all-important agent, however, of such as have 

 the good fortune to take their pleasure among the 

 Scottish wilds in pursuit of the good dun-deer, is the 

 rifle. This description of fowling-piece, if it may be 

 so called, or more properly, sporting-piece, has, like 

 everything in gunnery, undergone great improvement 

 within the last twenty years. It is now frequently 

 two-grooved ; though it has been urged against this 

 plan, that the extreme rotatory impulse given to a 

 ball by a whole spiral turn in the grooves of the 

 barrel, occasions a sacrifice of velocity, and conse- 

 quently of range. The ball, by this mode of grooving, 

 is made to revolve two or three times as often as, 

 under the percussion principle, is found to be quite 

 sufficient for projecting the plain spherical ball with 



