Twenty Years' Reminiscences of the Lews, by 'Sixty-One' (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1871 edition. Excerpt: ... liim, what on sea could? Besides, he was really a first-class boatman. I never saw one steer with an oar like him; and I verily believe that, once in particular, we should have been swamped while crossing from the Park to Aline after deer-stalking, with a very full boat, but for the manner he steered. I have said before that our Fred was a very good sportsman, a good shot, a fine rider, and a capital fisherman. Of deer-stalking, however, he at that time had had very little experience; indeed, none of the party, myself excepted, knew much about deer, and my limited experience was confined to shooting in France and Germany, where stalking, as practised in the Highlands, is not known; though waiting and watching deer, particularly shooting them from trees near their favourite feeding-places, and also driving, are. I killed a great many fallowdeer in Ireland, and was suspected of having poached a great many stags when I lived at Gheramene, on the Upper Lake of Killarney; but, on the honour of a gentleman, I never did poach, or attempt to poach, a single one, though I might many. Fred's first stalk was an important epoch in his life. M'Aulay took him to a stag, but the beast shifting a little during the stalk, he could not get nearer than some two hundred yards, and the only part of the stag he could then see to shoot at was not the entire head, but the angle formed by the jaw-bone with the head. M'Aulay said it was useless to shoot, and proposed letting the stag feed out of the spot; but Fred raised his rifle and shot him as dead as a stone, to Mac's wonderment--not to mine, for I am a believer in bottle-imps, and feel convinced that at that very moment Fred entered into compact with one, and that the day will arrive when the said imp will...