368 BAD WEATHER 



and then a burn which we had to cross nearly every 

 day, and where there was no kind of bridge, got 

 flooded. Those ten days were a rough time, but 

 as far as sport went I was well repaid, for I got 

 eleven shots at stags and six hinds, and so did very 

 well ; but stalking stags in soft snow is twice the labour 

 of shooting driven hinds. We had no drivers, and only 

 John and his lad of fifteen, so that when I shot a beast 

 I was obliged to leave him behind to 'gralloch' it, and 

 let him track and follow me as best he could, or make 

 to where he heard me shoot. There were no roads or 

 pony-tracks in the forest, so that we could not use a 

 pony, except for a very short distance on the north 

 side and round a part of the lower ground ; it is the 

 softest forest I know. Up to the time of my visit it 

 had never been properly stalked, and had been recently 

 given up to the laird (sub-let to the late Lord Lovat) 

 by Mr. Winans, who had fenced it in like his nine 

 other forests, and there was an enormous quantity 

 of deer collected there in October that year ; but after 

 the fence was pulled down Morna and Strathconnon 

 forests were stocked with some fine heads. Many a 

 time I have seen deer in herds trying to cross these 

 unsportsmanlike, diabolical fences ; and one day during 

 the rutting season I saw a stag in such a fury that in 

 making a rush at another champion he cut himself 

 most terribly on his breast and the point of his 

 shoulder. I afterwards went down from the top of 

 Paat to the marsh to see if it was much hurt, and 

 I could trace the blood for more than a mile 

 along the fence and where the straining- post had 

 cut the poor beast open. It had wandered along 

 the fence for miles, trying to get over to a large 



