260 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. (cmap. xxxtv. 
to open the deer, and dispose of the body, ready to be carried off 
the next day. This done we sat down, talked over the run, and 
consulted as to our proceedings for the rest of the day ; and as it 
was still early, we agreed to try some more ground, in the con- 
trary direction to that in which the hinds had gone, and, if kept 
out late, to sleep at a shepherd’s house some distance up in the 
hills. 
We searched many a corrie and glen in vain, till towards even- 
ing, Donald, who had been examining the rushy ground that 
fringed the sides of a considerable mountain stream, in hopes of 
seeing some deer at feed, suddenly shut up the telescope, and as 
he deliberately wiped the glasses, and placed it in its case, said, 
without looking up, “I’m seeing a fine stag down yonder, Sir.” 
Then having taken a long pinch of snuff, added, “ He is just 
the beast that the shepherd up there was telling me of last 
Sabbath ”—Sunday being the day on which Donald invariably 
heard all the hill news. 
The evening was coming on, so having no time to lose, and a 
considerable retrograde movement to make before we could ap- 
proach the stag with any hope of success, off we set at once, and 
we had a quick and difficult march of it for nearly half an hour 
before we got into the burn, up the course of which we proposed 
to keep, as it led straight to thedeer. The banks, however, were 
not so high as those of the former stream, and the water ran over 
loose round stones, which made our task much more difficult. 
We were within five hundred yards, and had got over the worst 
ot our ground, when, on looking up, we saw the deer trotting 
deliberately but steadily up the hill away from us, evidently 
having been moved by some suspicion of danger, though we were 
positive he had not seen or scented us. “ See to that; the brute 
is clean gone,” said Donald; and, indeed, clean gone he was for 
that evening, as just then we lost sight of his antlers as he got 
over the crest of the hill. On taking the glass, and examining 
the whole country round, I soon saw the object of his alarm in 
the person of the very shepherd whose house we were making 
for. The man was passing at some distance on his way home- 
wards, quite unconscious of our presence or the mischief he had 
done, as he trudged along towards us with his plaid over his 
shoulder, and his two colley dogs trotting slowly at his heels. 
