The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1867-01-23
4 Hunter Shot By q Deer.

From the London Telegraph, October Ill
Devoted as the English race is to field sports,
and general as the pursuit Of them has grown,
the shooting season can never pass without
accidents. Most Of these, however distress
ing, are ordinary enough in character For
getting obvious rules Of caution inexperienced
or careless hands main or kill either them
selves or some Of their companions. There is
nothing to be said Of such disasters, except
that prudent sporsmcn should avoid the clum-
81 people who cause such risks and that those
persons themselves should try to remember
that he who lets any eye but that of his quarry
see down his Ioaded barrels is a mutt and a
homicide in posse. But in Scotland calamity
has belaIIcn trstrate and well tried forester
which is really one of the most extraordinary
ever told in the annals of the rifle There
are curious stories by dozens in the records Of
flood and field" Every book Of hunting
and shooting contains some wonderful tale,
and every old shot can spin yarn after yarn of
wild adventures that befeI." Some that are
not believed are none the less true, for travel
crs and hunters do ''strange things,' as well
as ''sce" them, are often shy Of narratng all
they know, because truth is so often less prob
able than fiction.
Who would credit for example, that wild
Australian bull in full charge, had been feIed
to the ground and slain by a pebble thrown
from the hand? Yet that is on record. And in
the long list Of the accidents that have bcfaIen
the disciples of St. Hubert we find the oldest
Of tales. It is HarrSis, we believe, who mar
rates in his "Highlands of Ethiopia" that a
dying antelope pushed into de pursuer the
hunting knife which was drawn to slaYit, we'll
nigh ''graIlochng" the man insead of suffer-
ing that process itself. Something of the
same character, but more extraordinary still,
is the unfortunate accident which has occurred
in Mar Forest. It is not very uncommon for
deer to kill their hunters. The brow antlers
Of a ''stag of ten" are like bayoncts, and the
old song says, If thou be hurt with horn Of
hart ii brings thee thy grave" But who ever
heard of a stag shooting the man who shot it?
Nobody would dare to invent such an incident
in a volume Of sport. The mighty hunter
who got the soubriquet Of Gordon Cumming
sit too strong'' never told US such a story as
that. Yet the thing has really happened this
year in the Grampians, and right good for
ester was buried among the mountains last
Wednesday who was shot through the heart
by ballet fired by stag of which he had
made sure, and which was itself at the point
of death.
The unlucky sportsman was named George
Urquhart, and was frstrate and successful
deerstalker, one of the best Of Mr. PoWelI's |
foresters at Braemar. When out with his
master and some others on the face of Cairn
tout, a fine stag was stalked and surrounded
by the party. Urquhart was sent to keep the
animal from escaping by the head of the glen,
and firing at it, he wounded it again. Another
forester then joined him, and the two followed
the stag ont of the main pass into very deep
glen, with broken ground and PERCEPTIONS sides,
and loaming burn below. The deer was so
badly hurt that the men came up with him,
and Urquhart tried to drive him down with
the butt end of the rifle before dealing the fin
ishing blow. In despair and pain, the stag
dashed out, and striking the hammers Of tina