THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
other stags, who had probably been lying below, came trotting into view 
and stood for a moment hesitating about one hundred yards away. The 
last of the string was a good one, so I took him and had the satisfaction 
of seeing him stumble out of sight. I knew the shot was correct, so did 
not trouble further but went to follow the line of the first stag at which I 
had fired and of whose fate I was in doubt. As a matter of fact he must have 
fallen almost as soon as he topped the ridge, for he lay dead in the hollow 
below, an old animal of thirteen stone going back, whilst the second stag 
was a beast in its prime of fifteen stone. 
This somewhat lucky right and left did not quite compensate for the 
loss of the big fellow whom we saw driving his hinds up the hills opposite 
till he vanished in the mists of the Sanctuary at Corrie Baa. 
Although deer are not, as a rule, any better sighted than man, it is won- 
derful how quickly they will pick up a figure moving on the sky-line at a 
long distance and recognize its danger or otherwise. I saw an interesting 
instance of this in 1911 on a small piece of deer ground at Castle Leod 
in Ross -shire. My friend Bernard Hornung and I went to try and get 
a deer one morning and soon spied twelve stags standing on our ground 
not very far from the Wyvis march. We sat down, and were considering 
the best means of approach when we saw the deer suddenly look up to- 
wards the Strath Garve march, fully two miles away. The object of alarm 
was just apparent to us in the shape of two stalkers’ heads directly on the 
skyline, but the stags never hesitated a moment, but trotted slowly towards 
us till they passed within easy range. My friend fired and killed the two 
best, and as the chances of getting deer on the ground were not often 
favourable, I ran after the others, expecting they would halt and give me 
a shot if they stopped near the deer fence some distance below. I fired 
three shots at 300 yards as soon as they stood, and knocked down two 
more, both of which got up and followed the herd. One of these was too 
bad to travel far and soon lay down, when I killed him, whilst the other 
went away on to ground which we did not wish to disturb and where the 
stalker found him dead the next day. 
Deer are far too numerous in this part of Ross -shire. Two days after- 
wards George Hornung and I looked into the Wyvis Sanctuary and saw 
at least 400 stags and I never saw such a collection of bad -headed beasts. 
Amongst the whole lot there was only one stag, a ten-pointer, with a 
moderate head, all the rest seemed very poor, and must be half starved 
on this cold rocky ground in winter. About a quarter of these deer moved 
no 
