A STALK ON SCARBA 257 



them carefully; when, however, on rare occasions it seemed 

 advisable and instructive for a moment to admire the scenery 

 it was necessary only to mention the bootlaces to get what I 

 wanted and without giving myself away. The sport to me 

 seemed every bit as good as that of stalking stags, and was most 

 enjoyable ; indeed, the fixed number twenty-five was killed 

 all too soon. One hind, luckily only slightly wounded, towards 

 evening got away ; we followed it for a long time but never got 

 up to it ; a young stag kept it constantly on the move, prodding at 

 it all the time until both entered a wood, and we never saw them 

 again. Another, but much more severely wounded, also gave 

 us a long chase, but fortunately we found it at last standing 

 dead-beat among some rocks near the sea, two miles about from 

 where it was shot. The bullet had traversed the abdomen from 

 end to end and torn the stomach and bowels, the contents of 

 which were escaping externally. Yet the poor beast, followed 

 by a faithful friend which only left it at the last moment, had 

 gone all that distance and at a very good pace. The stalker, 

 who had the most extraordinary ideas about the recuperative 

 powers of deer in general, stated his firm belief that, left to 

 itself, this hind would certainly have recovered. 



Rain fell heavily as we left the island with a full cargo of 

 hinds, which not only had afforded excellent sport, but proved 

 the best of venison. 



18 



