SEPTEMBEK 201 



to a height of 3569 feet, and forms part of Ardverikie 

 Forest. My host of Corrour had rented this beat for 

 the season. Arriving at the foot of the ascent, I told 

 Robert Mackintosh, the stalker, that I was very ill, and 

 did not feel able to climb the hill, which is about the 

 steepest ground in those parts. In fact, I was in such 

 wretched pain that I would willingly have paid a five- 

 pound note to be conveyed home without further 

 exertion. 



'Ah, well, that is not good,' said Mackintosh, in 

 whose hands as a stranger sportsman I was but as clay 

 in those of the potter. ' We will go up a piecey and 

 spy about. There are some good beasts on the hill, 

 whatever.' 



So up we went, and up and up; till suddenly 

 Mackintosh clapped low, beckoning the gillie and me 

 to do the same. Something had moved a herd of 

 about thirty deer which were coming pretty fast along 

 the face of the hill above us. They had neither seen 

 nor winded us, and if they held the course they were 

 keeping, it seemed likely they would pass within range. 

 The stalker slipped the rifle out of its case and passed 

 it to me. A rocky bulge in the hillside to our right 

 presently hid the deer from view; before us was a 

 hollow — a shallow glen — across which they could not 

 well pass without offering a fair chance. There were 

 four or five stags among them, two of which the stalker 

 pronounced good, shootable beasts. 



We had not long to wait. A couple of hinds came 

 first in view, very much on the alert. They paused a 

 moment at the side of the glen, looking up and down 



