36 LIFE AT ROSEHALL. 



by taking advantage of some hillock, I should have a tolerable 

 chance of approaching him. After what appeared to me a long 

 tramp, I came to a slight rise of the shoulder of the hill. Beyond 

 this was a hollow, by keeping in which I hoped to get down 

 unobserved. It was already past three, but the stag had not yet 

 moved ; so, keeping the tops of his horns in view. I began to 

 crawl over the intervening height. At two or three places 

 which I tried, I saw that I could not succeed. At last I came 

 to a more favourable spot, but I saw that it still would not do, 

 however well the dog behaved, and a capital stalker he was, 

 imitating and following every movement of mine, crouching when 

 I crouched, and crawling when I crawled. I did not wish to 

 leave him quite so far from the deer, so I made another cast, 

 and this time found a place over which we both wriggled 

 ourselves quite unseen. Thank heaven ! was my exclamation, as 

 I found myself in a situation where I could stand upright again. 

 Few people excepting deer-stalkers know the luxury of standing 

 upright, after having wormed oneself horizontally along the 

 ground for some time. There were the horns with their white 

 tips still motionless, excepting when he turned back his head to 

 scratch his hide, or knock off a fly. I now walked forward 

 without stooping till I was within three or four hundred yards 

 of him, when I was suddenly pulled up by finding that there was 

 no visible manner of approaching a yard nearer. The last 

 sheltered mound was come to ; and although these mounds from 

 a distance looked scattered closely, when I got amongst them I 

 found they were two or three rifle-shots apart at the nearest. 

 There was one chance still : a rock or rather stone lay about 

 eighty yards from the stag, and it seemed that I might make use 

 of this as a screen so as, if my luck was great, to get at the 

 animal. I took off my plaid, laid it on the ground, and ordered 

 the dog to lie still on it ; then buttoning my jacket tight, and 

 putting a piece of cork, which I carried for the purpose, into the 

 muzzle of my rifle to prevent the dirt getting into it, I started in 

 the most snake-like attitude that the human frame would admit 

 of. I found that by keeping perfectly flat, and not even 



