172 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. _ [cuap. xx1. 
again, if he met an old woman when starting on any deer-stalk- 
ing excursion. The young pretty girl, however, was a good 
omen in his eyes. We passed through the woods, seeing here 
and there a roebuck standing gazing at us as we crossed some 
grassy glade where he was feeding. On the rocks near the top 
of the woods, Donald took me to look at a trap he had set, and 
in it we found a beautiful marten cat, which we killed, and hid 
amongst the stones—another good omen in Donald’s eyes. 
On we went, taking a careful survey of the ground here and 
there. Ata loch whose Gaelic name I do not remember, we 
saw a vast number of wild ducks, and at the further extremity of 
it a hind and calf feeding. We waited here for some time, and I 
amused myself with watching the two deer as they fed, unconscious 
of our neighbourhood, and from time to time drank at the burn 
which supplied the loch. We then passed over a long dreary 
tract of brown and broken ground, till we came to the picturesque- 
looking place where we expected to find the deer—a high 
conical hill, rising out of rather flat ground, which gave it an 
appearance of being of a greater height than it really was. We 
took a most careful survey of the slope on which Donald expected 
to see the deer. Below was an extensive level piece of heather 
with a burn running through it in an endless variety of windings, 
and fringed with green rushes and grass, which formed a strong 
contrast to the dark-coloured moor through which it made its 
way, till it emptied itself into a long narrow loch, beyond which 
rose Bar Cleebrich and some more of the highest mountains in 
Scotland. In vain we looked and looked, and Donald at last 
shut up his telescope in despair: ‘They are no’ here the day,” 
was his remark. “ But what is that, Donald?” said I, pointing 
to some bluish-looking object I saw at some distance from us 
rising out of the heather. The glass was turned towards it, and 
after having been kept motionless for some time, he pronounced 
it to be the head and neck of a hind. I took the glass, and 
while I was looking at it, I saw a fine stag rise suddenly from 
some small hollow near her, stretch himself, and lie down again. 
Presently six more hinds, and a two-year old stag got up, and 
after walking about for a few minutes, they, one by one, lay 
down again, but every one seemed to take up a position com- 
manding a view of the whole country. We crept back a few 
