1 10 DEER-STALKING. 



The Highland forester is usually intensely practical 

 and to the point; withal often very quaint, and his 

 manner is so quiet, and his words so plainly but the 

 utterance of his thought ; so evidently spoken without 

 the smallest wish to be discourteous, that it would be 

 churlish to take offence where so clearly none was 

 meant. "Surely you mistook the end of him," he 

 will exclaim, as he sees your bullet strike the haunch 

 instead of the heart. On another occasion we were 

 going to the forest on a very misty morning, determined 

 to go as far as safe, and then wait and chance it clearing 

 up. Suddenly the sun began to show like a moon 

 through the vapour. " Hurrah, Donald ! here comes 

 the sun : do you know it is ninety-five millions of miles 

 away ? " said the gentleman. " And pray, sir, who went 

 there to measure it ? " replies our practical friend, and 

 astronomy not being one of the shooter's strong points, 

 the subject was changed. On the occasion of a picnic 

 to celebrate a lady's birthday, the forester was of course 

 invited, and had peaches, cigarettes, and champagne ; 

 the next day he told his master that " they velvet 

 aepples were no bad, and that 'jump wine' was right 

 good, but that tobacco in paper was far too tender for 

 his smoking." As these three luxuries were all novel- 

 ties to him, his description was thought decidedly much 

 to the point and very quaint. 



In the course of a season's stalking in a forest a 

 stalker will have all sorts of gentlemen under his guid- 

 ance fat ones and thin ones, some in condition, some 

 out of it, old hands and novices, some highly excitable, 

 some stolidly phlegmatic, and to stalk for all and each 



