THE SURGEON OF THE DEER FOREST 207 
on a small flat piece of ground near the ruins of 
what had been a watcher's cottage many years 
ago, and we hoped, by getting into a broad and 
fairly deep burn, to reach a point about 200 yards 
further down, from which I could get a shot. The 
water was sometimes up to our waists and bitterly 
cold, and our movements were necessarily slow, 
but we arrived at last at a point which was about 
140 yards from the stag. Peering over the top 
of the bank of the burn, we saw that the stag was 
on the far side of the hinds from us, and was lying 
down in a dip of the ground, so that only the tops 
of his horns were visible. After we had been 
waiting in the burn for some time, the stag got 
up, and, without giving me a chance for a shot, 
walked on to lower ground, where he began to 
feed in such a position that it was impossible to see 
him until he put his head up, and then we could 
only see the upper part of his horns. After a few 
minutes I whispered : "I really can't wait here 
any longer, it is so frightfully cold, and the light 
will soon be gone. Let us get out of the burn and 
chance our being seen : at any rate, we shall be 
higher up there, and be more likely to see the 
stag." 
We cautiously hoisted ourselves out of the 
