ON THE MOORS. 149 



sion I managed to stick fast in a peat-bog, but 

 did not much mind, as I saw for the first time 

 the beautiful Grass of Parnassus and some rare 

 wild orchids. We tried to climb a mountain, 

 but found climbing terribly arduous, and had to 

 return home. Mountains, with their filmy blue 

 hazes and wondrous purple lights, are exquisite 

 afar off; but near, we found them less pleasing. 



The fourteenth was another shooting day, the 

 bag being as before, with the addition of a Roe- 

 deer. Subsequently we tried the venison of 

 this, but found it unpalatable. Whether the 

 fault lay in the cooking, I don't know ; but it 

 certainly was not in our appetites. 



Three days of deer-stalking succeeded ; the 

 bag at the end of that time being a sprained 

 ankle, and the sight of the antlers of a Red 

 Deer about two miles off. Disgust I saw had 

 long been brewing ; now it was openly ex- 

 pressed. Several attempts at driving the deer 

 had been made, but the monarchs of the glen 

 always scented the hunters from afar, and went 

 the wrong way. 



On the last night of our sojourn in the High- 

 lands (so it turned out) there was an air of 

 mystery about " the guns." There was some- 



