surprise, each o f the big stags being held at bay by a gallant hound. A couple o f shots then
settled the business ; and so ended what was then considered a grand day’s sport. No doubt
it was most exciting to see the struggle o f bone and sinew between two such noble
quadrupeds, but it was not rifle-shooting. To-day the gallant but disturbing deerhound
has given place to the cunning and obedient collie, and the success o f the stalker depends
for the most part on the accuracy o f his rifle, and his skill in using it.
It is pleasant to note that, whatever may happen in other sports* there is no such thing
as favouritism in deer-stalking. It does not matter in the least whether you are Mr. Smith
or the Duke o f Bayswater ; in a properly-conducted forest you will be treated in exactly the
same way by Donald, for in his view you are simply “ the man with the rifle,” and in
estimating your worth he will look only to your achievements as a sportsman. One bad
miss on the part o f a Duke will lower him at once in the eyes o f his critic, while one good
shot by Mr. Smith will elevate him over the head o f his unlucky companion, no matter
how many stars and garters he may be entitled to wear. Witness the following instance.
A certain great personage whose name is a household word had a day’s stalking in a
Perthshire forest. The head stalker, a particularly grim but zealous follower o f his craft,
had given his “ man ” two easy chances, and the bullets had flown wide. A third chance
even easier than the others, at a big stag whose presence in the larder was eagerly desired,
proved equally disastrous, and the day’s proceedings ended in a blank. The head stalker’s
stock o f patience was exhausted, and three miserable men trudged down the hill towards
the forester’s lodge, within a few hundred yards o f which were feeding the usual lot o f tame
hinds. And now the head stalker found himself short o f something more than patience, for
on catching: sight o f these semi-domesticated hinds the great man, who had seen no deer
that day save those that were pointed out to him, exclaimed with great excitement, “ There
they are ! Don’t you see them ? ” and promptly squatted on the ground preparing for the
fray. T h e head stalker’s measure o f his “ man ” was now complete. Without deigning to
A HIND CHARGING AT AN EAGLE THAT HAS ALIGHTED NEAR HER CALF
reply, he turned round to the gillie in attendance and said quietly, “ Puir bit mannie, he
disna ken ony better,” and away he walked.
A word as to the crofter question — with all apologies for a parenthesis hardly
to be avoided. Years ago, it will be remembered, there was a loud outcry by the crofters
that they were being eaten up by the extension o f the forests in Scotland, and no doubt at
the commencement o f the movement considerable suffering was occasioned in this way.
But, happily, we have little o f this nowadays. Assisted emigration and the general reduction
o f rents in the crofter districts have done much to ameliorate the condition o f the peasantry;
and but for the feeble bleating o f a few philanthropists, who credit their hearts with a
softness that is largely due to their heads, we should probably hear no more about it. What
these good gentlemen ask'is that certain forests should be laid waste, or (as they put it)
restored to cultivation. But what would be the good o f that ? Nine-tenths o f the deer
K