igo WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



minutes' burst along the shore and the open part of the cover, 

 he turned back and passed me within a hundred yards at a 

 slow canter — the hounds had got well warmed to their work, 

 and never lost the scent for a moment. The buck, after a 

 great many turns and windings, was fairly driven to the swamp 

 again, which he crossed this time quite slowly, stopping in the 

 water every now and then, as if to cool himself; but the dogs 

 did not leave him much time, and were soon at the edge of the 

 water. The buck crouched down in the middle of a small 

 heath-covered island in the water, which was here of a consider- 

 able width : the hounds, however, went right across the water, 

 and began trying for the scent along the opposite edge. I had 

 seen the roe stop where he was, and ran down to call the hounds 

 back, but before I could do so, one of the pack, a very excellent 

 young bitch, whom I had got from the New Forest in Hamp- 

 shire, gave a cast and got the wind of the roe, giving a quiet 

 cheep, sufficient however to warn the rest of the pack, who all 

 joined her ; she trotted through the water straight up to the 

 island, and very soon the whole of them in full cry were at the 

 roe's heels, and driving him directly in the face of one of the 

 guns, who finished the hunt with a cartridge, killing him not 

 twenty yards ahead of the dogs. When the roe was opened 

 afterwards, the whole cartridge, wire and all, was found em- 

 bedded in his heart, a proof of the great efficacy of this kind 

 of charge, and the superiority of its strength over that of loose 

 ■shot. 



After resting the dogs and talking over the chase, I left 

 :my friends at their passes again, and went back to draw the 

 cover for another roe. The dogs were very soon in full cry 

 again, and as luck would have it, out of four roe that had started 

 they had got on, the track of a fine buck ; this roe was run for 

 some time in as good style as the last, and after he had narrowly 

 escaped being shot two or three times, I shot him dead about 

 fifty yards before the hounds. During the run I saw twu 

 foxes start ; one of them waded quietly through the swamp 

 towards my English friend, who, however, did not shoot at him, 

 because he was afraid, he said, of losing a chance at the roe ; 

 but I rather suspect that, having been bred a fox-hunter in his 

 own country, he had a kind of holy horror against killing a fox in 

 any but the orthodox manner to which he had been accustomed. 



