and few dogs of any kind could match her
for long and steady labour in the water.

Now, it was the fixed determination of
the Wanderer, on roaming again northward,
once and for ever to prove his title to
the hunter's badge, by killing, according to
the requirements of the old Highland
formula, a red Deer, a Salmon, an Eagle, a
Seal, and a wild Swan. The red deer, he
knew, were certainly not numerous in Uist;
but the system of stalking them places
the possibilities strongly in favour of the
hunter, who lies securely hidden, close to
one of the paths the game is sure to take
when driven by boatmen from the adjacent
small islands where they feed. Salmon
were plentiful in the brackish lochs
communicating with the sea, and in some of the
larger rivers. The lesser seals swarmed at
all times, while during winter even the
great Arctic monster brooded on Hysker,
and played splashingly at leapfrog through
the Sound of Harris. Here and there, hovering
over the inaccessible peaks, poised the
eagle, in all the glory of his freedom, while
the ravens croaked jealously on the shadowy
crags below. As for the hoopers, solitary
specimens had been known to alight on the
lonely lochans even during the sunny season,
and in winter the huge migratants landed
in swarms—no very difficult mark for the
hunter's bullet or "swan-post."

But the Wanderer was not proud; he had
an eye to lesser game, and being inoculated
with the least bit of the naturalist's
enthusiasm, longed greedily for additions to
his museum. Wherefore the eider duck,
and the merganser, and the little gallinule,
and all the various tribes of sea-birds and
land-birds, were carefully marked for
addition to the list of specimens culled by that
steadfast hand. Then there was the cabin-
table to be catered for; and rapturously
was it noted, therefore, that wild ducks and
plovers, and moorfowl, and conies, were
numerous in all the islands, and that the
monster wild goose, a still more noble
quarry, was breeding in seeming security
in the hearts of all the greater moorland
lochs.

These were the weapons: a Russian rifle,
antiquated, time-worn, good alike with
bullet and small shot; a double- barrel
breech-loader, good for stopping smaller
game on the hillsides; and a long shoulder
duck gun, Big Benjamin by name, good for
any or everything at a hundred yards, and
certain, if loaded with the due amount of
shot and powder, to stretch low the
unwary shooter with its sharp recoil. Then
there was the rod, a slight thing, but
clever and pliant, besides being very portable;
and then there were the six or
seven kinds of flies—the dark wild-drake's
wing, with white tip, being found the
finest for trout in all those waters.
Besides these, there was the telescope, taken
in preference to a binocular field-glass, as
being at once more powerful and more
sportsman-like; but voted a bore in the
sequel, always getting lost if carried in the
hands, and, slung over the shoulders by a
strap, constantly dangling forward in the
way of the gun when the shooter stooped,
or suddenly loosening at the critical moment
before firing, to scare the purposed victim
away with a savage rattle!

Floating hither and thither, a light air
guiding the punt surely though slowly
towards the victims, we soon accumulated
specimens of the two species of gool-ducks,
the male and female eider, the black guillemot,
the herring hawk, the black scart and
green shag, and the calloo. All and each
of these birds we roasted and tasted after
the skinning, having determined to give a
fair trial to every morsel that fell to rod or
gun; the only eatable birds among them
were the eiders, and to devour them with a
relish would require an appetite. As for the
scart, angels and ministers of grace defend
us from that taste again! The rakings
of the ship's greasiest pantry, the scrapings
of the cook's foulest cullender, mingled
with meat from the shambles and stinking
fish from the sea, could not surpass that
savour! Yet the fishermen praise it hugely,
and devour it with greed. At St. Kilda,
where the chief diet of the inhabitants
consists of sea- fowl, and elsewhere over all the
islands, the birds are prized as food exactly
in proportion to their fishy and oily taste.

Of all common birds that fly, commend
us to the curlew; for we are by no means
of that tribe of sportsmen who like an easy
prey, and in our eyes the more difficult the
chase the more glorious the sport. The
curlew has two noble qualities. Kept till
the right minute, cooked to a turn, delicately
basted, and served with sweet sauce, it
equals any bird that flies, is more delicate
than the grouse, richer than the partridge,
and plumper than the snipe. Then, still
better, it is without any exception whatever,
the most difficult of all English birds
to catch unawares, or to entice by any device
within shooting distance. It knows better
than yourself how far your gun can carry; and
with how mocking and shrill a pipe it rises
and wheels away, just as you flatter yourself