JOHN MA THE WSON 371 



no chance of getting a shot at them without driving 

 them, and this was strictly forbidden, and would, with 

 so many fences, have been very unsportsmanlike, so I 

 had to remain content with what I had got. I could 

 easily have shot a score more stags all as fat as 

 bullocks, but I hardly know how we managed to get 

 the meat home as it was, and John must have done 

 the work of five men. I never knew a more willing, 

 good fellow, and I only hope he will be well treated 

 as long as he lives. When I arrived at Lake Morna 

 the first night, to be taken up to the lodge, during the 

 long row of six miles, he and I, when talking of 

 stalking, found ourselves looking rather hard at each 

 other, and at last something he mentioned recalled to 

 my memory, when looking up at Scour-na-Lapich, that 

 I had shot a deer on the top of it, which spot I could 

 see from the boat. The circumstance had happened 

 some seventeen years previously. ' I was just think- 

 ing,' said John, 'that Mr. C. was in it, for I was the 

 gillie with you that same day.' Time had so altered 

 us that we failed to recognise each other, and it was 

 by chance we did so, though doubtless in a day or 

 two, with the Scour in sight of us all day — for it is, I 

 believe, the second or third highest mountain in the 

 Highlands — one or other of us would most probably 

 have mentioned the occurrence. It is much easier 

 stalking on that ground than on Paat, or Corryeach 

 and Riochan, for there is such a large open corrie on 

 the latter ground, extending for miles, that not only 

 does the wind trouble the stalker in three different 

 places, but most of thestalking has to be done from 

 the top, and it is perpetual climbing up and down hill. 

 The corrie itself is too open, and the ground is not 



