86 DEER-SHOOTING AND OTHER MATTERS. 



carrying her down, fired at a copper pheasant and 

 another hind almost at the same moment. The latter I 

 killed, and found the addition to our larder of two deer 

 very acceptable. Often when surveying the coasts, par- 

 ticularly the out-of-the-way localities, it was difficult to 

 get fresh meat, and at such times a deer or some pheas- 

 ants, or a wild boar, came in very much to the purpose. 

 Tlie abruptness of the mountain- sides, the deep, narrow 

 valleys, gorges, great masses of rock, impenetrable 

 coverts, and interminable woods, of which the country 

 is made up, afford such shelter for these animals, that, 

 plentiful as they are, it is no easy matter to fall in with 

 them, and when this is done it is difficult enough to 

 shoot them. I found the best way to succeed was by 

 working the coverts and woods with a couple of dogs, a 

 spaniel and an Irish retriever. I had taught these dogs 

 to go with whom I pleased, particularly one or two of 

 my men who had been trained by me how to work the 

 woods. Picking out the way which I considered most 

 likely for the deer to take if the dogs stuck to them, I 

 almost always bagged one, and very frequently two, in 

 the day. 



The following narrative of a day amongst the hills 

 behind Kobe will give a general idea of this kind of 

 work. It was early in November, before the rutting 



