58 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



been safely crossed. Ben Glass with its rugged face had been 

 wellnigh breasted, and I was thinking of the old " packman " 

 frozen to death a year before, and whose cairn, with a shred 

 of his wretched clothes, lay close at hand, when my son gave 

 the warning word " roes ! " There were three in group, and a 

 fourth at a short distance from them. All were full-grown, 

 and much of a size. Except for a scanty sprinkling of trees 

 interspersed with occasional patches of brushwood, the whole 

 hill-face was bare, and this bareness was more apparent from 

 a thick coating of snow. The creatures seemed fully to com- 

 prehend the situation, and to know as well as we did how 

 difficult it would be to steal on them unperceived. Those in 

 company therefore went leisurely ahead, while the single one 

 deigned no further retreat than to move a little on one side, 

 so as to give us " a wide berth " in passing him. Our game, 

 by showing equal carelessness and sang froid, was to entice 

 them to slip quietly into some secluded hiding, either among 

 the alder-bushes fringing the brooks which seamed the moun- 

 tain-side, or perhaps behind some cluster of hillocks, where by 

 humouring the wind we could stalk them like deer. 



As in all wild shooting, success depended entirely on our 

 marking the next resting retreat of the roes, without making 

 them aware that we had done so. It was, in fact, a fair trial, 

 whether we or our game had the keener eyes ; for if the snow- 

 tracks gave us a hint where to direct our survey, the fugitives 

 were quite aware that we were hanging on their rear ; and the 

 three pairs of trained and skilful eyes, scanning every rugged 

 " neuk " of the forward ground, were well matched by three 

 pairs as watchful and wary, noting every moving speck from 

 behind, rendered more distinct by the weary waste of snow. 



Twice the skulkers attempted concealment, their first retreat 

 being found out by my son, and the second by myself. Both 

 times, however, they had an eye on us first, and, instinctively 

 warned by our bearing, moved on again with quiet and cautious 

 step. 



