Field Notes and Stalking Yarns 75 
Thursday , $th October .—Shortly after leaving to-day we found an old stag with a lot 
of hinds on the east face of Ben-an-luss. He was very savage, roaring continuously and 
moving his hinds about, as another stag was answering him. M‘Leish said he was 
the oldest stag in that part of the forest, and that he had known him by a certain peculiarity 
for no less than thirteen years. He was also a most cunning animal, for he had been stalked 
and shot at several times in past years. We watched him for about an hour, as his position 
THE STALKERS, BLACK MOUNT 
was unassailable, till at last, getting uneasy, he moved right over the top of Ben-an-luss. 
Now was our chance, if the mist would only hold up. Allowing a short time for the deer 
to settle down, we negotiated the stiff climb, and M‘Leish, leaving me behind a rock 
on the summit, returned some distance to signal directions to the pony man. He came 
back just as the stag returned roaring down the pass he had ascended, and as the mist was 
blotting out the landscape, I feared he would come right on to us without being seen, 
but as luck would have it, he stopped and recommenced bellowing within 70 yards. 
I never heard a stag make such a row, but nothing of him could we see. It was most 
exciting, lying flat on a slab of rock, hoping devoutly that the mist would rise, if only for a 
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