OUR FOUR-FOOTED NEIGHBORS. 343 



old Dreadnought when he crossed their warm track. Upon 

 these occasions he would stand and look at me in wonder, 

 turn his head from side to side, sniff the ground again to 

 see if it was possible that he could be mistaken, and, when 

 he found that there was no disputing the scent, cock one 

 ear at me with a keener inquiry, and, seeing that I was in 

 earnest, trot heavily onward with a sigh. 



Charles Edward Stuart. 



DEER-STALKING IN THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. 



1. One beautiful day in early September the old 

 keeper MacLellan and I started for a day's sport in the 

 hills. After about an hour's stalking we came upon the 

 shoulder of a long slope, which looks into the gorges of 

 two or three short glens, opening to a narrow plain, on 

 which we saw a noble sight — a herd of four or five hundred 

 deer, among which were many fine stags. After having 

 feasted my eyes with this splendid sight — the illustrious 

 cavalry of the hill, the crowned and regal array of the wil- 

 derness — I began to calculate how to make the approach, 

 how to slip between the chain of vedette hinds and numer- 

 ous pickets of small stags which commanded almost every 

 knoll and hollow. In the center of the main body, with a 

 large plump of hinds — which he herded within a wide 

 vacant circle — there was a mighty black hart, with a head 

 like a blasted pine, and a cluster of points in each crown. 

 Though each stag of the surrounding circle had not less 

 than ten points, there was none which approached his 

 size, and they all kept at a respectful distance, while he 

 marched round and round the central group of hinds. 

 " He will have them all in the ring before long," said Mac- 

 Lellan ; " yon's one of the old heroes ; he has not been four- 



