DEER-DRIVING IN MULL. 35 



brethren, we arranged another drive for next morning. At 

 this hunt our posts were the same, except that my second son 

 was now convinced that it is sometimes good policy to choose 

 the lowest place. The dogs soon found a hot track, but the 

 run was long, and the deer stubborn. For nearly two hours 

 they stuck to the scent, threading their nimble quarry round 

 every rugged knoll and through many a tangled thicket. At 

 last, when least expected, and the cry of the dogs at the 

 farthest point of the covert, the object of their pursuit, in the 

 shape of an old hind, quietly stole out of the wood, and stood 

 opposite me, listening a fine broadside, though rather distant 

 chance. I fired, and struck her hard. She turned again for 

 hiding to the copse, but a shot from the second barrel brought 

 her down. There were no more deer found all day, so the 

 hart had not returned. 



Our last Scalastal day was intended for black-game and 

 grouse, and as the cutting of Garmony wood (which had spoilt 

 it for deer) made fine open shooting at black-game, we gave it 

 the first trial. Our bags were fast filling with young black- 

 cocks, and old ones too, before we got to the farther end of 

 the wood, where the moor-ground of Garmony and Fishness 

 begins. Here we meant to range for grouse, but, to our 

 surprise, a deer was watching our motions on this open moor, 

 distant about half a mile. As it was a very small hind, we 

 thought the No. 5, if near enough, might possibly add her to 

 the game-list of the day. Leaving my youngest son at the 

 spot where the deer was likely to enter the wood, and sending 

 my eldest round the knolls, to take post a little way above 

 her, I coupled up our brace of setters, making them and the 

 retriever follow me. The attention of the deer was at once 

 fixed on me and my dogs. She never took her eye from us 

 until, having got fairly in her rear, I began to whistle and 

 draw up. As I hoped, she went away at a walk, looking now 

 and then over her shoulder to see if she was pursued. The 

 marksman above had thus ample time to shift his ground, so 



