THE HIGHLANDS OF THE SWEDISH DIVIDE. 259 
easily gained, but thenceforward the wind, being within 
a few points of foul, presented danger. But I was now 
satisfied I had a curious head before me, and crept 
forward along the verge of the loch. At one hundred 
and twenty yards, the deer got the wind and stood up, 
sniffing for some seconds uncertainly at the breeze. 
Then he moved directly away, only half his body show¬ 
ing above the rocks. Such a shot means five to one 
against the rifle, and I decided to take a bolder course and 
try to cut the deer off on the farther side of the penin¬ 
sula. The distance to the ridge might be two hundred 
yards, pretty steep, and intercepted with trailing birch. 
Having reached the ridge, with lungs going like bellows, 
I rejoiced to observe that the shore beyond was within 
eighty yards, but—nothing was in sight! Had the 
deer fairly beaten me, passing by ere I had arrived? Had 
he taken the water, or—but doubts were resolved by 
the rattle of hoofs, and broad antlers, in full gallop, 
appeared from behind a pyramid of piled-up boulders 
by the shore. He had now to pass within eighty yards, 
and I “ shot to kill,” dwelling well forward on the snow- 
white neck. As I pulled, the Ren-ox swerved straight 
in, thus receiving the *450 ball between the eyes. He 
tumbled “ all of a heap,” his head doubled in beneath 
the breast, dead as a door nail. 
This was a very old solitary buck, no front teeth 
remaining, and the fact of his being alone at that date 
(September 20th) showed that he had probably been 
dispossessed in battle of his master-position in the herd, 
and was sulking in consequence. 
The incident of course lacks in sentiment, compared 
with deer-stalking on the high fjeld, but that old recluse 
