284 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS dHAP. 



particularly when combined with his hoarse and strange bellow- 

 ing. As the evening closed in, their cries became almost 

 incessant, while here and there we heard the clash of horns as 

 two rival stags met and fought a few rounds together. None, 

 however, seemed inclined to try their strength with the large 

 hart who had first appeared. The last time we saw him, in 

 the gloom of the evening, he was rolling in a small pool of 

 water, with several of the hinds standing quietly round him, 

 while the smaller stags kept passing to and fro near the hinds, 

 but afraid to approach too close to their watchful rival, who 

 was always ready to jump' up and dash at any of them who 

 ventured within a certain distance of his seraglio. " Donald," 

 I whispered, " I would not have lost this sight for a hundred 

 pounds." " 'Deed, no, it's grand," said he. " In all my travels 

 on the hill I never saw the like." Indeed it is very seldom 

 that chances combine to enable a deer-stalker to look on quietly 

 at such a strange meeting of deer as we had witnessed that 

 evening. But night was coming on, and though the moon was 

 clear and full, we did not like to start off for the shepherd's 

 house, through the swamps and swollen burns among which 

 we should have had to pass, nor did we forget that our road 

 would be through the valley where all this congregation of deer 

 were. So, after consulting, we turned off to leeward to bivouac 

 amongst the. rocks at the back of the hill, at a sufficient distance 

 from the deer" not to disturb them by our necessary occupation 

 of cooking the trout, which our evening meal was to consist of. 

 Having hunted out some of the driest of the fir-roots which 

 were in abundance near us, we soon made a bright fire out of 

 view of the deer, and after eating some fish and drying our 

 clothes pretty well, we found a snug corner in the rocks, where, 

 wrapped up in our plaids and covered with heather, we arranged 

 ourselves to sleep. 



Seyeral times during the night I got up and listened to the 

 wild bellowing of the deer : sometimes it sounded close to us, 

 and at other times far away. To an unaccustomed ear it 

 might easily have passed for the roaring of a host of much 

 more dangerous wild beasts, so loud and hollow did it sound, 

 I awoke in the morning cold and stifif, but soon put my blood 

 into circulation by running two or three times up and down a 

 steep bit of the hill. As for Donald, he shook himself, took a 



