170 DAYS OF DEER-STALKING. 



Thine heart's blood is streaming, thy vigour gone by, 

 Thy fleet foot is palsied, and glazed is thine eye : 

 Thy last hard convulsion of death has come o'er thee, 

 Magnificent creature ! who would not deplore thee ? 



Coir-na-Minghie has rung to the rifle's first crack, 

 And the heights of Cairn-chlamain shall echo it back ; 

 Glen Croinie's wild caverns the yelling shall hear 

 Of the blood-hound that traces the fugitive deer. 



By the gods, 't is a gallant beginning : Hurra ! 

 Diana has smiled on the hunters to-day ! 

 In the sports of the morning come, goddess, and share, 

 And Bacchus shall welcome thee homeward to Blair. 



The first who started for the sport were Tortoise and his 

 men, of whom Jamieson was the chief a fine, straight, 

 sinewy, well-favoured man he was, with as good wind, as 

 cool judgment, and as quick an eye for deer as any man on 

 the hills. They had slept, as has been noted, at Bruar 

 Lodge, about nine miles north of Blair, that they might 

 begin at the outskirts of the preserved part of the forest. 

 As soon as the morning mist was dispersed, they were 

 breathing the fresh air on the summit of Ben Dairg, sitting 

 upon the red stones, and prying with their glasses into 

 every part of the vast forest that lay expanded before 

 them, more especially and minutely examining those 

 places that were under the wind, the warm corries, and the 

 best pastures. They had hitherto seen nothing but hinds ; 

 but, as such gear only spoil sport, they took care to give 

 them their wind, and send them out north, that they might 

 at once get rid of them. 



It was now far on towards the rutting season ; and, as 

 the party advanced, and looked over the Elrich, they saw a 

 parcel of hinds with a master hart, who had made this very 

 Turkish collection for his sole individual gratification ; 

 these were to be kept, as they were obtained, by the strong 

 antler. Like the Athenians in their prosperity, these mar- 

 tial fellows acknowledged no law but that of force. 



Whilst the hart was walking proudly with the hinds, a 

 hoarse roar comes over the ridge of the hill ; it is the 

 menace of war nearer and louder it falls upon the ear ; 

 and, lo ! the angry rival appears on the sky-line. He halts 



