6 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



experience of the crag and the blast, though unable to talk 

 theoretically on the subject, yet, from constant and acute 

 observation, will confidently predict the result ; and, taking 

 advantage of every shifting change, will 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 some- 

 what 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 " jetty, heath- 

 cock," or whether a twiddling snipe may spring, or an Alpine 

 hare start unexpectedly before you. It is the same uncer- 

 tainty which gives zest to cover-shooting. The golden-breasted 

 pheasant, the russet woodcock, the skulking hare or dodging 

 coney, may all successively appear. 



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

 stalking. It is sport for princes. I only offer them as conso- 

 lation to those who undervalue the amusement within their 

 reach, by exaggerated ideas of that above it. 



No man with good nerves need despair of becoming a tol- 

 erable rifle-shot, as the great art is to take plenty of time 

 in fact, to shoot as coolly at a deer as at the target. The 

 American backwoodsmen with their ill-balanced rifles can hit 

 the jugular vein of an animal feeding or moving about, with 

 unerring accuracy, at thirty or forty yards. Every one must 

 see how much this depends upon nerve and coolness ; and 

 these settlers are taught self-command, which is the basis of 

 their dexterity, from their earliest years. I recollect being 

 shown, by the owner, a rifle which he considered a chef-d'oeuvre 

 of American workmanship. The most cool-headed forester of 



