IN SCOTCH DEER-FORESTS 75 



wood. Then, as I crept, surely it seemed that that 

 yellow patch in the trees had a familiar, life-like 

 appearance. Yes, it was certainly a deer. As I 

 instinctively raised the rifle, there was a movement 

 and a rush of some heavy animal in the wood in front 

 of me ; the yellow patch disappeared, and presently 

 there arose a chorus of shouts and exclamations from 

 the party outside. I emerged, breathless, into the 

 open a few moments after, and only then learnt the 

 full extent of our failure and disappointment. It was 

 the big stag, after all. He had broken from the wood 

 close to the party resting on the moor, with empty 

 rifles, alas ! in their covers, and so unavailable ; had 

 trotted majestically past them within 30 yards, with 

 spreading horns well laid back ; had gracefully disap- 

 peared over the near skyline, while the men shouted 

 and the riflemen gazed, and so vanished in the direc- 

 tion of Ben Loyal. 



The rutting season was close at hand, the time of 

 love and war in the open forest, where his faithful 

 hinds kept tryst and where his rivals would soon be 

 challenging his sway ; and so the big stag of the Ribi- 

 gill woods departed from our midst, and was not seen 

 again that season. I have no doubt that this par- 

 ticular piece of thick cover out of which by chance I 

 had disturbed him was his regular place of refuge and 

 concealment, where he was constantly wont to re- 

 treat when we disturbed his haunts by our driving 

 operations. 



In spite of this particular failure, we secured our 

 limit of twelve deer that season, artistically killing the 

 last two stags on the very last day, as I elsewhere 

 relate. So I retain a fond and pleasing recollection 

 of the steep sides of Ben Loyal, of its glens and 



