76 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



of the death of defenceless animals. I will instead 

 narrate the adventures of a Scottish harpooner, An- 

 drew by name, who one day went a-hunting. He did 

 not profess to be going a-tmnting, but asked leave to 

 go ashore to the river's mouth, and there wash his 

 clothes. This is a privilege which is dear to the 

 heart of the hardy tar ; he delights in washing his 

 clothes and messing about with soap-suds. Our har- 

 pooner, however, was a very Ulysses, a man of 

 many devices a cunning man, with an eye to possi- 

 bilities, so he privily took with him a rifle and some 

 cartridges, and with some kindred spirits repaired to 

 the river's bank. The party had not been long en- 

 gaged in their pursuit when Andrew was 'ware of a 

 fine stag looking curiously at him over the brow of 

 the bank. Cautiously he puts down his pipe, cau- 

 tiously he takes up his rifle, and levels it at the in- 

 quisitive beast. He pulls the trigger bang ! the 

 deer falls, and the echoes ring out a volley against 

 the hills, as the washing-party, taking in the situa- 

 tion, spring forward with a yell, like the Highlanders 

 at Tel-el-Kebir, to breast the slope and be at the 

 enemy. Andrew drops his rifle, and seizes a stick 

 for is it not more like his harpoon than a rifle ? and 

 advances steadily to finish off his prey. Soon he 

 reaches the prostrate deer, and straightway delivers a 

 blow calculated to quicken the dead a calculation, 

 alas ! but too well founded, for the deer forthwith rises 

 up and makes off like the wind, the party standing 



