EIGHT YEARS AFTER ONE STAG 315 



let drive a snap-shot at him. That swing of his head, 



standing as he was downhill, caught my bullet, which 



was going straight to his heart, and turned it into his 



neck, merely wounding him, and he was out of sight in 



no time. 



I I did not finish that stag until a long time afterwards, 



when he had lost his former weight ; but, thanks to my 



dog, I found him after I had got a snap-shot at him in 



some thick birch covert, where he was in the habit of 



hiding during the day, and on skinning him I found 



my first bullet in his neck, as flat as a shilling. The 



head was the widest I have ever got, being just 37J 



inches inside measurement from tip to tip, and nearly 



2,^^ inches outside. 



' So much for eight years' work, from daylight till 



' dark, season after season, at last rewarded. On both 



occasions I was, save my dog, quite alone, though my 



youngest son was the first up at the finish. Such is the 



pleasure of self-stalking. One never forgets the stags 



so obtained ; but when any amount of assistance is 



given, I should infinitely prefer hunting a stag with a 



pack of hounds, and, if well mounted, to save the poor 



beast at the end of a good run, rather than to stop its 



career for ever by means of extraneous assistance. 



I have ridden to stag-hounds since I was ten years 



; old, and for years ever did my best to be up in time to 



I save the deer, which was always the honour most 



coveted ; but it has always seemed to me that to shoot 



deer like hares, driven into a corrie and completely 



surrounded, or to shoot them in snow, is uncommonly 



poor sport. I may add that on such occasions hinds 



also are frequently included in such butchers' work. 



Many stags are not genuine Highland-bred, their 



