LIFE AT ROSEHALL. 47 



priety that he should hunt the very ground over which I intended 

 to beat homewards. 



On second thoughts, I fancied that he had fired off' his gun 

 to warn me of his approach ; but, just as I was passing these 

 things over in my head, I saw a stag of good size come in view 

 from the direction in which I had heard the shots. Down I 

 dropped instantly behind a rock, as the deer was coming straight 

 towards me. As he approached, I saw that the poor beast was 

 hard hit. One of his forelegs was broken, and swinging about in 

 a miserable manner, and he had also one of his horns broken off 

 a few inches above his head ; altogether he seemed in a most 

 pitiable state. Before he came within two hundred yards of me 

 he turned off and I watched him as he scrambled along on three 

 legs painfully and slowly, stopping frequently to look back, or to 

 smell at the blood that was trickling down his sides. I could 

 plainly see that he was also struck somewhere about the middle 

 of his body, as well as on the horn and leg, and was now bleeding 

 fast. 



It then occurred to me that Donald had fallen in with a lame 

 stag, and had thought it best to do what he could towards killing 

 him with my gun. Bullets he always took with him by my 

 orders. The stag continued his painful march, and I would have 

 given much to have been within reach to put an end to the poor 

 brute's misery. He twice lay down on a grassy spot amongst 

 the rocks, having first looked anxiously and fearfully round him ; 

 but seemingly the attitude of lying was more painful to him than 

 moving slowly on. I remembered then a theory of Donald's, 

 that a deer never lies down when shot through the liver, but 

 continues moving, or at any rate standing, till he dies. How far 

 this opinion was correct I never had a good opportunity of 

 proving. The deer before me, having found that lying down 

 gave him no relief, continued moving, but still slowly and with 

 evident difficulty. Once he stopped and stood in a pitiful 

 attitude, trembling all over, and moving his head up and down 

 as if oppressed with deadly sickness. After this lie seemed to 

 recover slightly, and, standing erect, gazed with care and anxiety 



