THE RED DEER 
telescopic sight that gives perfect definition and great magnification 
even in a bad light it vs^ill be seen that, as Sir Charles Ross says, “ at short 
ranges the stag has not a chance.” That is so if the stag invariably stands 
still, which he does not always do. 
” I think my husband must be one of the best sportsmen and the best 
shots anywhere,” remarked a good lady to me one day. ‘‘ This year he 
killed twenty-four stags in twenty-four shots.” Now, since the hero in 
question was of mature years, carried a considerable corporation, and 
never moved a yard without his motor-car when at home, I asked an old 
friend who had recently stayed in his forest how the Highland air achieved 
such physical excellence. 
”Y-e-e-ss,” he drawled, ‘‘old Jim [the hero in question] is a rare 
good chap, but he always stalks on the best beat with his pony, never fires 
unless the light is behind him and the distance eighty yards, and not at 
all unless the stag is broadside on and standing still.” 
The mystery was explained. 
‘‘ Elimination of difficulty has been the guiding star of modern 
deer-stalking methods, but in making the sport easier we have 
robbed it of its romance. The distinctive charm of the old sport lay 
not only in the personal endeavour to outwit the self -preserving 
instincts of a wild animal at a time when these instincts were most 
acutely developed, but also in the fact that here gunpowder took 
second place, success depending chiefly on sound heart and lungs, 
quick eyesight, silent movement in constrained positions, and skill 
to catch the tricks of shifting wind. Modern methods have eliminated 
the personal stalk and have gone far to eliminate the wild stag. He 
is losing the hallmark of the hills and the indescribable flavour of 
the wilderness. Contrast the old and the new literature of the deer 
forest. The former is wholly concerned with the stag, the latter 
is mainly concerned with the scenery. The monarch of the glen 
is an excuse for a walk even when multiplied by six. There 
must be drastic changes, or the deer forest of the future will be 
valued merely as a mountainous Bisley for long-range practice at a 
live target.” 
Thus writes my friend, Mr Allan Gordon Cameron, who admires all 
that is best in the ‘‘ old ” sport with more than a little truth, but in the 
end I think he is somewhat too scathing. Good sport with the rifle in 
Scotland is not yet dead, nor yet too easy, provided it is stripped of its arti- 
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