398 STAG RECOVERING 



not to show himself, unless the animal drops to shot 

 in his tracks, when, if not hit in a vital part, it is 

 advisable to run up at once before it can recover, 



I have often heard men who were inexperienced 

 stalkers at red-deer complain that a stag had bolted, 

 after it had dropped v*nth all its four legs upwards, as if 

 it were quite dead. Nothing is much more trying- 

 than to see a beast get up and gallop off under such 

 circumstances, just when the second barrel has been 

 emptied at another beast in the herd. Such a misfor- 

 tune happened to a friend of mine when shooting in 

 Paat Forest in 1880. He had been stalking a lot of 

 beasts most of the day, and eventually was handed his 

 rifle by John Mathewson, who gave him the necessary 

 instructions as to distance, etc. Being a fine grouse- 

 shot, he made too sure of so large a beast as a stag at 

 eighty yards, and in consequence took too full a sight, 

 and aimed at no particular portion of the huge body, 

 the result being that, as is usually the case when a stag 

 is not properly covered, the bullet struck too high and 

 grazed the spine, in which case a deer always drops as 

 if it were dead, being really only paralysed for a few 

 seconds, when it is up again and off like a shot. A 

 similar incident occurred to the grandfather of the 

 present Lord Lovat, who struck a stag in the same 

 manner, and fired his second barrel at another. Those 

 were the days of muzzle-loaders, and he was in the act 

 of loading, while his stalker, John Ross, of Glen- 

 Strath- Farrar, proceeded to introduce his knife into the 

 beast through the point where the neck and shoulder 

 meet, when, to their astonishment, up it started with 

 the knife stuck in it, knocked John Ross over on 

 his back, and neither knife nor stag was ever seen 



