A Sportsman at Large lid 



as Don and Dinah. What a pleasure it is to shoot grouse, 

 or, for the matter of that, any other game birds, over tho- 

 roughly trained and broken dogs ! To see them work, to my 

 mind adds a hundred per cent, to the joy and excitement 

 of shooting. 



Of course, as time went on, birds became wilder and wilder, 

 and began to pack ; but for the first fortnight we averaged 

 quite thirty brace per day. Our heaviest (third time out) 

 fifty- three brace, which is the best, over dogs, I have ever 

 participated in, where only two guns were concerned. 



The time come when stalking was the order of the day. 

 Collinson Hall was an old hand at the game ; whilst Alec 

 Grant had a great and well deserved reputation as a 

 stalker. 



My weapon was a Winchester repeater, not perhaps an ideal 

 one for the job, but sufficient, given a fair chance. I was 

 confident of my ability to hold straight and steady, and this I 

 had demonstrated to Messrs. Hall and Grant to their entire 

 satisfaction and approval on the counterfeit presentment of a 

 stag which had been set up for shooting practice on the face 

 of the hill opposite the lodge. 



This sport, new to me, did not materialize until the last week 

 of my stay. 



The first day out, there was a thick mist which drove sharply 

 over the corries and hill tops. 



It was a longish climb before we arrived at the spot where 

 active operations were to be put in force. An understrapper, 

 known as Sandy (I have not the remotest idea what his other 

 name might be) was told off, to take me along to Cairn Turk ; 

 whilst Hall and the faithful Grant, debouched to the left to 

 scan some corries known to them as being an almost sure 

 " find." 



When nearing the plateau on the summit of the stately 

 hill in question, I became aware of certain birds, of grouse 

 size, which kept running over the boulders in front of us, 

 perching on tops thereof, craning their necks and then taking 

 short flights. They were in small coveys or bunches of three 

 to five and showing a pretty grey and white colouring. I 

 knew what they were ptarmigan, of course ! Here was a 



