00 DEEU-STALKIKG. CH. XXV. 



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 easily 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 ap- 

 proaching a yard nearer. The last sheltering 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 

 that occurred to me : 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 

 tightly, 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. 



1 found that by keeping perfectly flat, and not even 

 looking up once, I could still get on unobserved. 

 Inch by inch I crawled : as I neared the stone my 

 task was easier, as the ground sank a little and the 



