160 DAYS OF DEER-STALKING. 



And the coronach rings on the mountains of Blair, 

 For the Lord of the woods and the moorlands bare. 



The moors ! the moors ! the desolate moors ! 



When the mist thickens round, and the tempest roars ! 



W hen the monarch of storm 



Rears his giant form 



On some rock-built throne 



That he claims for his own, 

 To survey the wild war on the desolate moors ! 

 For the winds are let loose, and the sound is gone forth 

 To awaken the troops of the frozen north ! 

 And the lightning, and hailstone, and hurricane fly, 

 At a wave of his arm, through the dark rolling sky ; 

 And his footsteps are trampling the fog and the cloud, 

 That envelop the earth in a funeral shroud ; 

 And the sheep and the shepherd lie buried below 

 The wide-spreading folds of his mantle of snow ; 

 And the breath of his nostrils encumbers the wood ; 

 And his fetters of crystal arrest the flood ; 

 And he binds in its fall the cataract, 

 And makes level the gulfs of the mountain tract ; 

 Till his work is complete, and a dread repose 

 Broods over a boundless waste of snows ; 

 And the wild winds bewail in whispers drear 

 The decay and death of the by-gone year. 



CHAPTER XII. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE HIGHLAND DEERHOUND, WITH AN 

 ACCOUNT OF A DAY'S DEER-COURSING IN THE ISLAND 

 OF JURA. 



[Communicated by ARCHIBALD MACNEILL, Esq., of Colonsay.] 



Dogs of Ancient Britain. Irish Dogs sent to Rome. Early Scottish Dogs. Sculptured 

 Stones at Meigle. The Miol-chu. The Mastiff and Grey houud. Recreation of Queen 

 Elizabeth. Dogs of Epirus. Irish Wolf-dog. Proportions of a Deer-hound. Failure 

 of Crosses in Breeding. Deer Dogs of Colonsay, and Dimensions of Buskar. 

 Expedition from Colonsay. Cavern Scene. Wild Scenery in Jura. Stag discovered. 

 Stalking Him. The Start and Course. His Death. Speed and bottom of Deer- 

 hounds. Decay of the Ancient Rice. 



" Canis venaticus, celerrimus, audacissimusque non solum in feras sed in 

 hostes etiam latronesque praesertim, si dominum ductoremve injuria offici 

 cernat, aut in eos concitetur. " BOECE. 



IT is not a little remarkable that the species of dog, which 

 has been longest in use in this country for the purposes of 



