262 GOOD STAGS 



vented nowadays. The crosses are easily got if 

 they keep out of thick coverts, and if in these they 

 will not break forward ; but when really good stags, 

 they always break back at any cost when the covert is 

 beaten. 



If watched at early morning they can be easily 

 stalked outside such woods. Once they are in the 

 latter, they are safe for the day, and nothing short of 

 a pack of hounds will get them out again. 



I have seen beaters knocked clean over, and have 

 heard of people being seriously injured, so much so 

 as to cause their death, by such deer breaking back 

 and inflicting a kick or a severe blow when breasting 

 anything which chanced to be in their way. I once 

 shot a hind, as she was coming straight back on to me, 

 with a charge of No. 6 shot, and she rolled over like a 

 rabbit. She was breaking back on a line of black- 

 coated beaters, and the chances are that she would 

 have knocked me over, as she could not see me in the 

 covert of young fir and heather, and the cloth I use 

 for my shooting-clothes is exactly the colour required 

 for stalking such ground. If any of my readers are 

 desirous of obtaining it, they can do so from Mr, Holt, 

 of Sackville Street, London. It is as good as any 

 cloth I know for such purposes, and is invisible on 

 most moors. It is made in both light and heavy 

 qualities. Mr. Robert Fraser, of Inverness, and other 

 tailors in the North, also have it. 



I am most anxious to impress upon the reader that, 

 although I have enlarged so much on the pleasures of 

 driving game, I do not wish it to be supposed that 

 I do not appreciate most fully the very great plea- 

 sure afforded by shooting over dogs. Indeed, I have 



