DEER -STALKING. 31 



point : sometimes it may be north on one side of a hollow 

 and south on the other ; and I have seen the mist moving 

 slowly in one direction along the hill-side, and half-an-hour 

 afterwards the very reverse, without any change in the 

 wind. To account for this on the spur of the moment 

 would often puzzle the scientific, but the unlettered hill- 

 man, who has only been taught by the rough experience 

 of the crag and the blast, though unable to talk theoreti- 

 cally on the subject, yet, from constant and acute obser- 

 vation, will confidently predict the result ; and, taking 

 advantage of every shifting change, bring you within 

 fair rifle-distance of the unsuspecting herd. 



To a novice, even though an expert rifle-shot, the first 

 sight of " the antlered monarch of the waste " will almost 

 take away the power of hitting him. But to any one 

 accustomed to the sport and constantly practising it, the 

 sameness abates somewhat of its intense interest : for it 

 admits of no variety but the age and dimensions of the 

 stag. In wild-fowl shooting, the excitement is kept alive 

 by the various kinds of game that present themselves, 

 from the magnificent hooper to the tiny teal. On the 

 grouse mountains there is often the uncertainty whether 

 the next point may be the red or the a jetty heath-cock," 

 or whether a twiddling snipe may spring, or an Alpine 

 hare start unexpectedly before you. It is the same 

 uncertainty which gives zest to cover-shooting. The 

 golden-breasted pheasant, the russet woodcock, the skulk- 

 ing hare or dodging coney, may all successively appear. 



I do not mean by the above remarks to depreciate deer- 



