240 



him — feathers and all— over with mud, and baking him in the ashes of 

 a good turf fire. After about fifteen minutes or so we took the bird 

 up, and the hardened mud, falling off in one mass, exhibited our grouse 

 without the trace of a feather, and cooked in the superlative degree of 

 excellence. 



This continuance of game fare became at last so intolerable that only 

 the capital sport we were having, even though the birds were begin- 

 ning to get very wild, prevented our returning into civilised regions. 

 One day, however, a happy thought struck me : to wit that, perhaps, I 

 might, by stalking or driving, manage to shoot one of the wild mountain 

 sheep we occasionally saw, but which never allowed us within a mile 

 of them. Accordingly, without telling Fred of my intention, I got up 

 one morning before daylight, and trudged up the mountain to a sort of 

 defile, towards or through which I had seen the sheep sometimes go 

 when disturbed. I confided my plan to a couple of the farmer's boys, 

 and gave them instructions that as soon as they thought I had gained 

 my cache they were to try to drive some of the sheep to me. 

 They succeeded capitally, and no long time elapsed before I saw a 

 flock of about a dozen wending their way right up to me, and 

 following each other slowly along a pathway they had no doubt 

 often travelled. Fortunately I was down wind of them, and the 

 morning being bright and clear I was able to pick out the fellow I 

 considered would make the best mutton. This was a game-looking 

 little chap with black face and crooked horns. The path I saw led 

 right up to within about fifteen yards of me, when it bore to the 

 right, which would afford me a full broadside shot ; so I waited my 

 opportunity and let drive both barrels almost instantaneously at the 

 little wether, aiming just behind his left shoulder. To my intense dis- 

 gust, away he went with the rest as hard as he could split, and 

 disappeared behind a ridge. 1 knew I could not have missed him, and 

 on examining the path I found a lot of blood ; so I hurried on and 

 soon discovered the poor little fellow in his last throes. Waving my hat 

 to the boys, and giving a loud Whoo-whoop ! they were soon at the 

 spot We bled and gralloched him in true Highland fashion, just as- 

 i£ he had been a Blair Athol royal, and the boys bore the carcase 

 between them to the house. 



Never was meat sweeter to men than was this mountain mutton 

 to Fred and me, and though it was rather tough for a day or two, and 

 had precious little fat, we devoured it with ravenous gusto, after such 

 a long course of fur and feathers. 



That was, indeed, a jolly sporting trip, and many a time afterwards, 

 we talked it over and agreed that we never tasted such ripping good 

 and well-cooked game as we had in that lonely but lovely place ; yet. 

 Fred had a chef io whom he paid £100 a year. 



This, however, was not my first turn at cooking game of my own 

 shooting, and for my own subsistence. Years before that, another fellow 

 and I had to live upon snipe for nearly a week under somewhat similar 

 circumstances. We put up in a rather rough-and-tumble old shooting; 



