38 TOUR IN SUTHERLAND. CH. III. 



A very curious circumstance happened on the 

 same island, which strongly indicated the habits 

 of red deer during the season when their horns are 

 soft and liable to injury. The island, which is 

 scarcely a rifle-shot in length, and less in breadth, 

 is very rough, and cut up like an old peat moss, but 

 covered with very high heather and coarse grass, in 

 which the wild goose forms her nest. While I was 

 looking about quietly in the broken clefts and 

 ground for these nests, a large stag suddenly 

 rose at my very feet out of a deep hollow — that is, 

 deep comparatively speaking, and just sufficiently 

 so for a stag to lie in. The wind was high, and he 

 either had not heard me, or he remained quiet in 

 hopes that I should pass without perceiving him ; 

 at any rate he did not move till I nearly stepped 

 upon him. He then rose, and in two springs was 

 in the water and swimming strongly and bravely 

 for the opposite mountain. A stag swims with very 

 great speed and ease : in a short time he reached the 

 shore, which was a good half-mile from the island, 

 and having shaken himself, I saw him through my 

 glass take a long look back, and then he trotted 

 slowly up the shoulder of the hill. In my nume- 

 rous deer-stalking excursions I certainly never was 

 so near to an unwounded deer : he had evidently 

 been living in solitary security for some time on the 



