THE PRACTICE OF DEER-STALKING 149 



where the hills are steep, the corries small, or where 

 woods abound, hardly any would be recovered. A stag 

 shot in the body may lie down, and if the nature of the 

 ground will allow of his being watched, the stalker may 

 see where he goes ; and then it '^generally easy enough 

 to get up to and finish him. Even this is not always 

 possible. Over and over again I have known a stag 

 cross the burn below where he was fired at and lie 

 down on the face of the hill exactly opposite to where 

 we remained watching him, the distance in a straight 

 line between pursuer and pursued being so short that 

 the movements of the latter could be observed with 

 the naked eye. On these occasions the moment 

 we tried to get out of the place the beast saw us 

 and was up and off and soon out of sight, having a 

 good start of perhaps half an hour before we could 

 get to the top of the opposite ridge. On these 

 occasions either the dog was left some way behind, or 

 there were special reasons why it was injudicious to 

 slip him. 



But if a stag, instead of being shot through the 

 body, has merely a broken leg, he is not nearly so 

 ready to lie down, but tries to keep with the herd, 

 which often accommodate their pace to that of their 

 wounded comrade. Even if a solitary stag, it is diffi- 

 cult to see how he is to be stopped without a dog. 



