134 DEER-STALKING 



in books or articles professing to give minute 

 directions on such subjects, that the deer-stalker 

 should endeavour to wear a suit of a colour resem- 

 bling the particular ground on which he intends going. 

 This is all very well if you are sure that the whole 

 day will be spent in one place. But this rarely 

 occurs. In pursuit of deer, it is often necessary to 

 leave the granite ridges of a hill, and descend to the 

 black peat bogs which are to be found at its base. 

 What then becomes of the beautiful light-grey tweed 

 in which you had encased your manly form, with the 

 idea of producing the nearest approach to harmony 

 with the colour of the primitive rocks or the ptarmigan, 

 among which you intended passing the day ? Take 

 the following instance, which is surely not uncommon. 

 A corrie clothed with the short sweet herbage which 

 makes its appearance green as a lawn, while at the 

 bottom of the corrie lie boulders of every size and 

 shape, rolled down from the top in some convulsion 

 of nature, or by the slower process of disintegration 

 during countless ages. Beyond this, again, moss and 

 heather. Now suppose a party of stags is spied from 

 the ridge, and lying, as is often the case in the day- 

 time not in the corrie, but on the moss at the 

 bottom let us say within half a mile of the ridge, 

 and in full view of the whole ground by which they 



