THE RED DEER 
to within 150 yards of the herd, which consisted of five fully-grown stags 
and a lot of smaller animals. The two best fed together on the right, 
and we had to wait some time before different animals moved out of 
the way before a final advance and a shot were possible. At last 
the coast was clear and we ran down the hill, covered from view by 
several immense grey boulders until I reached a point I knew must be 
within easy range. Peering round a rock I saw the two best stags, a nine- 
and an eight -pointer, standing close together. I killed the first with a shot 
through the neck and gave the other a heart shot as he trotted off. After 
giving time for the other deer to move away we went to look at the fallen, 
but search as carefully as we could there was no sign of the second stag. 
We therefore followed the herd, and after carefully spying it saw there 
was no wounded animal amongst them, so returned and continued our 
search for more than an hour. I felt certain, however, that I had killed 
the stag, as I had heard the bullet strike and saw the deer “ lift ” to the 
shot, but at last we had to give it up and complete the gralloch and cutting 
up of the first stag. Two days afterwards McLeay found the stag dead and 
almost completely buried in a cleft between two rocks where it had fallen. 
We now made for the lodge, but on the way met with a stag which was 
considered shootable. As I had not killed the number allowed me, we 
essayed the stalk, which was of simple character like all the others. Just 
a drop down the hill — a short crawl over small ridges sprinkled with large 
rocks and an easy shot at eighty yards, ending in a kill. 
Next day I fished and caught twelve sea -trout in the morning, and in the 
afternoon George Henderson and I shot six brace of grouse and four snipe. 
Thus ended a delightful nine days of Hebridean sport, which I had tho- 
roughly enjoyed. The seven stags weighed nine, nine, thirteen, nine, 
ten and nine stones. The weight of the one temporarily lost was not taken. 
These show that the deer of these islands are small, whilst the one of 
thirteen stone was probably a first cross with a stag which some years 
before had been imported from the mainland. Recently the usual big 
Warnham stag has been imported to South Harris, but I have not heard 
if any stock has been raised from him. 
Deer -stalking, however, is not always so easy as it is in the Hebrides. 
I have recollections of a week at Black Mount in September, 1890, when 
deluges of rain fell and the wind persistently kept in the north and put 
the stags on to the big open hill -sides facing south, all approaches being 
guarded. One day on Loch Baa flats I made four separate stalks with 
105 
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