296 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



takien place out of sight of the sportsman. Moreover, the dogs 

 run a great risk of being disabled and injured either by the stag 

 or by the sharp and rugged rocks and stones over which they 

 take their headlong course. The deer-hound is so noble and 

 handsome an animal, that, independently of his actual and 

 marketable value, he is invariably a pet and favourite of his 

 master, so that any accident which happens to him is the more 

 regretted. With good management the experienced stalker 

 can generally secure his dogs from running at young deer or 

 hinds unfit to be killed. Indeed, many deer-hounds have a 

 wonderful instinct in singling out the biggest head of horns in 

 a herd of deer, and in sticking to this one, regardless of the rest 

 of the herd. It will often happen, however, that the dogs set 

 off after some hind or young stag, which leads both them and 

 you away a long chase, unsatisfactory both in its commencement 

 and termination, disturbing the ground and taking up twice as 

 much time as would be required to kill the fine old ten-antlered 

 stag, whose head you covet for your lobby, and whose haunches 

 you wish to send to your English friend, to show him what 

 size a mountain-fed stag will grow to. A large heavy hart is 

 also much sooner blown and brought to bay than a younger 

 and lighter deer. 



The breed of deer-hounds, which had nearly become extinct, 

 or at any rate was very rafe a few years ago, has now become 

 comparatively plentiful in all the Highland districts, owing to 

 the increased extent of the preserved forests and the trouble 

 taken by different proprietors and renters of mountain shootings, 

 who have collected and bred this noble race of dogs, regardless 

 of expense and difficulties. The prices given for a well-bred 

 and tried dog of this kind are so large, that it repays the cost 

 and trouble of rearing him. Fifty guineas is not an unusual 

 price for a first-rate dog, while from twenty to thirty are fre- 

 quently given for a tolerable one. 



My object, however, in commencing this Chapter was not 

 to enter into a disquisition concerning greyhounds, but to 

 describe some of their performances which have fallen under 

 niy own observation, and which I noted down at the time. 



September 22, 18 — . — Started this morning at daybreak 

 with Donald and Malcolm Mohr, as he is called (Anglicfe, Mal- 

 colm the Great, or big Malcolm), who had brought his two 



