STALKING EN LUXE. 99 



It is decided it is better to have a try at a very 

 difficult and daring stalk. The deer in front of us are 

 lying at the top of a hill with a rocky face, falling sheer 

 some sixty feet ; but John Mitchell knows well enough, 

 that if we can only reach it there is room to crawl along 

 on the rocky ledges running parallel to the top. Sign- 

 ing to the gillie to stay where he is with the dog, we 

 creep as flat as we can to the spur of the hill, and then 

 descend to the edge of a precipice some three hundred 

 feet deep; having gained this shelter, we can pick our 

 way uphill amongst the rocks, taking great care not to 

 slip. We do so till we are level with the hinds below 

 which we want to pass ; turning sharp to the left, then 

 begins a very hard crawl to the knees, for it is over 

 rocks. We push our way along this ledge, holding on 

 by old heather roots and tufts of grass growing in the 

 fissures of the rock, till we are right under the whole 

 herd of hinds, and not thirty yards from them ! Shall 

 we get past without being detected ? Noiselessly and 

 with extreme caution we progress till we come into full 

 view of the third lot, which doubles our difficulties. 

 They are well below us, however, and deer are not 

 much given to looking up-hill ; although in a case of 

 this sort they are more liable than usual to do so, ?.s 

 they like occasionally to see what the others are about. 

 Thus very gently we creep on : in another fifty yards 

 we can ascend the face and be within shot of the herd 

 where the stag is. Forty yards are safely traversed, 

 when one of us dislodges a large piece of loose rock, 

 and down it falls with a clatter and great thud as it 

 reaches the heather. I take the rifle from John, and 



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