128 DEER-STALKING 



I have said that there are exceptions to the system 

 which is here advocated, but it is not easy to name 

 them. Each owner of a forest must be the best 

 judge of what is required in his own case. I can only 

 generalise and state what is in my judgment best if 

 circumstances allow of the adoption of the plan 

 recommended. But one exception, before leaving this 

 part of the subject, may perhaps be mentioned, and 

 it will probably suggest others to the readers of this 

 paper. When only two men are required, and where 

 one of them has to live in an out-of-the-way place, 

 perhaps in a bad house without a croft attached and 

 to which there is no road, or when the keeper has to 

 lodge and board with a shepherd, in such a case you 

 cannot get the class of man who is fitted to take on 

 his shoulders the full responsibility of working his 

 beat. It is better that he should receive orders from 

 the head forester, for he is really more of a watcher 

 than anything else, though often quite as good a stalker 

 as his superior. Indeed, all Highlanders in that 

 position of life seem to be born stalkers. 



To return to the subject of ' Beats ' themselves. 

 There are two ways of managing a forest in this 

 respect. One way is to divide it into very large beats 

 and send one rifle out on each beat, leaving it to the 

 judgment of the stalker to determine according to 



