320 SELF-STALKING 



sport would, under the above circumstances, be more 

 genuine. It is easy enougli to kill a stag, but the 

 sport consists in the way it is done. I trust I may be 

 able to induce the younger portion of my readers to 

 learn for themselves the very vast difference there is 

 between self-stalking and the system which is nowa- 

 days more generally adopted of having the work per- 

 formed by a professional, and I am sure that they will 

 be well repaid, and I may add that if I am successful 

 in my endeavours so to induce them, it will be a source 

 of unqualified satisfaction to myself also. My object 

 in writing at all is chieHy for the benefit of the rising 

 generation of sportsmen, and I do not desire to vaunt 

 my own successes, but to try and teach them ' the way 

 in which they ought to walk.' 



It is very possible, nay, most probable, that at first 

 the attempt made to stalk deer without assistance may 

 lead to signal failure, but the monotony of following a 

 professional is avoided, and where the forest is his 

 own property, or he has leased it for a term of years, 

 the sportsman will find very great and interesting em- 

 plo5^ment in studying the peculiarities and difficulties 

 of the ground the whole year round, so that when the 

 stalking-season again opens he will be au fait with 

 every corrie in the forest, and the varying effects of 

 the wind from every point. If he has a taste for 

 natural history so much the better, and he will find 

 endless opportunities for indulging it. One portion 

 alone he must be ever careful to avoid, and that is the 

 ' sanctuary,' or such portions of the ground as may 

 take the place of what is so termed, for there the deer 

 are ever left alone the whole year round, and feel safe 

 within its limits. 



