THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
boasting, Dalness deer probably averaged a good stone heavier than 
those of Black Mount, or any adjacent forest, and this was easily accounted 
for when one saw the wonderful grazing. Moreover, the stalkers told me 
that all the big stags left the high carries in November, and went for 
shelter westwards in the big “ woods about Loch Awe, where they 
were free from molestation until they returned in the summer. Such 
conditions, therefore, were bound to produce a few stags of exceptional 
merit. 
We found a stag almost at once up on the black face within full view. 
I had hardly seen it when a sharp snowstorm came down and roused us 
to immediate action, for under its cover we raced up the hill to get the 
protection of a low ridge, up whose reverse side we made good progress, 
and so eventually arrived well above our beast. X. , the stalker, said the stag 
was of exceptional size and beauty, two things I failed to observe when 
the rifle was withdrawn from its case. The beast, however, moved on to 
a little plateau, where a shot was possible, so I took the chance at once, 
though somewhat annoyed at my companion’s excitable “ Shoot — shoot.” 
The stricken animal stood still at once, and then stumbled forward, 
luckily falling on the lip of the hill just as I was again pressing the 
trigger. Our quarry was a very ordinary beast of 14 stone, with nine 
points. 
Leaving the second stalker to drag the deer to the road, the head stalker 
and I descended the hill somewhat and then proceeded over the shoulder 
into the big corrie known as Larig Ashton. The snowstorm had spent 
itself, and we could see far up into the very heart of the forest. This is 
the best ground in all Dalness, and one that is always teeming with deer. 
” I’ve got him,” said X., as soon as he was seated against a rock. 
” What ? ” 
” The big stag.” 
” No. Yes. Heavens, what a beast.” The ” great one ” was no myth. 
There he stood above his hinds — quite 100 — looking like “the monarch 
of the glen,” and certainly bigger than any Scottish stag I had ever seen. 
His head was good too, eleven or twelve points, and seemed unusually 
wide. Just the ideal beast we are all looking for. Swiftly I grasped the 
possibilities of the stalk, and this seemed so easy too. Deer swarmed 
all down the glen below him; but he was the highest beast, and not one 
hundred yards above him rose a world of rocks jutting out of a tiny precipice 
— ^just the place which, if we could only reach it, would be easy to come to 
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