British Deer and their Horns 
5° 
seventy hinds. I had never before seen two master stags in that attitude, and the sight was 
indeed a grand one, for the corrie was full of deer. One of these stags, an n -pointer, 
seemed anxious to fight, but was so worried with the importunities of outlying 
cavaliers that it was as much as he could do to keep his wives together. At last he could 
stand it no longer, so, to get ready for business, he rounded up his fair ones with almost the 
dexterity of a collie collecting sheep, and drove them before him out of the corrie. Now 
STAGS FIGHTING 
was my chance, suggested M c Leish, if I cared to risk a moving shot at the 11 -pointer 
instead of firing at an old stag lying some 70 yards below us in the most tempting position ; 
and as the herd disappeared from view my companion pointed out the rock under which 
they would pass. A quick run along the hill-side soon brought me there, and, looking over 
the edge, I saw the whole herd rushing down the hill and spreading out like an open fan. 
That is not the sort of shot that I care about, or could often expect to make successfully ; 
but the fickle goddess was kind that day, and at the touch 
of my trigger the big stag showed he was hit, as with 
laboured efforts he left the hinds, and, turning back, made 
for the stream at the foot of the corrie. Seeing how matters 
stood, M‘Leish at once despatched his little collie, who 
went yapping down the hill to bay the stag and bring 
matters to a conclusion. But presently the doggie stopped, 
and when I arrived breathless he was sitting contentedly gazing into a turbid pool where 
the waters were foaming like a torrent of Bass’s pale ale. Nothing could be seen of the 
stag, nor should I have discovered his whereabouts had he not moved his black horns 
with their gleaming points. There he was, however, hidden right under an over¬ 
hanging peat hag, with only his eyes, nose, and horns above water, and I could now claim 
him as “ my beautiful, my own.” Even a practised eye might have passed the spot a 
ROUSED 
