m
 
 G>
 
 SPORTING DAYS 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN COLQUHOUN 
 
 AUTHOK Of 
 
 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH,' ' SALMON- CASTS AND 
 STKAY SHOTS,' ETC. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS 
 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 
 MDCCCLXVI 
 
 The Iti'M of Translation is reserved.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 EXCEPTING the Northern tour, the following- 
 articles were contributed to an Edinburgh weekly 
 journal anxious to establish a sporting sheet. 
 The introduction will explain its object. The 
 whole comprises a few of the last experiences of 
 the Author's shooting and- fishing life. 
 
 In these later days he has consequently had 
 the pleasure and comfort of always being accom- 
 panied by one or other, sometimes by both his two 
 elder sons, who, having beea thoroughly trained 
 by himself, never annoyed him by mistakes or 
 blunders, which so often ruffle the old hand when 
 
 2056450
 
 vi PKEFACE. 
 
 in company with a young brother of the rod or 
 gun. 
 
 One of these dear companions is now shooting 
 bears, antelopes, wild peacocks, &c., in India, with 
 his regiment, " the old Black Watch ; " while his 
 elder brother has also found a congenial field in 
 " the sister island," where for the last five years 
 he has been serving with the Royal Irish Dragoon 
 Guards. 
 
 A first Indian addition to the home museum 
 was an eagle flying over the tents when the 
 young hunter opportunely had his fowling-piece 
 in hand. He shortly after added another trophy 
 in the portly person of a brown bear, killed by a 
 little double Whitworth given him on departure. 
 
 On the first shooting- party Bruin was steal- 
 ing along a ledge of rocks, at the base of which 
 the rifle was posted. The bear rolled down 
 the precipice and pitched at the shooter's feet. 
 Fortunately the shot was deadly, or the rough 
 one might have acknowledged the salute by a
 
 PREFACE. VI 1 
 
 too cordial embrace. These and numerous other 
 foreign spoils are preserved to adorn the joint 
 collection. 
 
 The Author has only further to say that all 
 his sporting feats are transcripts from his private 
 journal, taken down the same night, or at furthest 
 next morning after they occurred. He has never, 
 therefore, been forced to draw on memory or 
 imagination ! 
 
 KAMES CASTLE, Jvly 1866.
 
 C N T E N T S. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION, 1 
 
 SEA-FOWL SHOOTING IN THE FIRTH OF FORTH, . . 7 
 
 DEER-DRIVING IN MULL, 33 
 
 LOCH SALMON-FISHING, 67 
 
 SEAL-SHOOTING, 81 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY AND SPORT OF BUTE, ... 96 
 
 GLENFALLOCH ROES, 160 
 
 AUTUMN ANGLING ON THE LYON, 185 
 
 A PTARMIGAN DAY, 211 
 
 THE COMMON DOTTEREL, 232 
 
 THE WILDS OF SUTHERLAND : ALTNAHARRA DURNESS 
 
 SCOURIE INCHNADAMFF, 239
 
 SPORTING RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE superiority in pluck and endurance of hard- 
 ship which the British Islands have so long held 
 over the other nations of Europe is pretty gener- 
 ally admitted to be in no small degree due to the 
 love and practice of our out-of-door recreations. 
 Nowhere is this more fully acknowledged than in 
 our army, where year by year additional facilities 
 are given to colonels of regiments from head- 
 quarters to permit those under them as much 
 sporting leave as is consistent with attention to 
 duty. Many of our most distinguished com- 
 manders have openly expressed their opinion, that 
 although a man who devotes all his time and 
 A
 
 2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 energy to military duty may be an excellent and 
 valuable parade officer, yet in actual service, when 
 anything dashing was done, it was, in nine cases 
 out of ten, by those who loved the hunting-field 
 or the grouse-mountain far better than the bar- 
 rack-square, and that these were generally the 
 most efficient officers in an arduous campaign. 
 
 The impetus given to the mental as well as the 
 physical powers by healthy exercise no one denies, 
 though hundreds profess themselves unable (more 
 truly, perhaps, unwilling) to submit to the ardu- 
 ous experiment. An ordinary walk is not enough 
 for a strong man who is at the same time an 
 earnest student. In order to keep his mind up 
 to the mark, he ought to accustom himself to 
 hardship, and inure his limbs and muscles to 
 fatigue. No doubt it is hard laws to a man in 
 middle life, who has never done more than his 
 " Saturday's walk," and a short stroll the other days 
 of the week, to send him up the steep mountain- 
 side with a gun under his arm ; but even he, by 
 perseverance and practice, will be astonished at 
 his own powers, and delighted with the probable 
 result health and strength of mind and body.
 
 INTEODUCT10N. 3 
 
 It is needless to say how few of us would 
 endure this continual hardship and fatigue, were 
 it not for the present excitement, which impetus 
 is supplied by the love of hunting, innate, though 
 often latent, in most manly and independent 
 characters. I always sympathised with the 
 Scotch poacher of fifty years ago, who, for the 
 sheer love of sport, sallied out over the well- 
 known hills, and with his quaintly broke collie 
 dog and rusty single-barrel enjoyed himself to 
 the full. He never sold his game, but when he 
 had more than his family could use, gave the rest 
 to his neighbours. That is past and gone; the 
 English squire first drove the poorer Scotch one 
 out of the market, and he in his turn has been 
 superseded by the millionaires from London, 
 Manchester, and America. Incredible prices are 
 given by the latter for all our first-class deer 
 forests and shootings, while the second-rate beats 
 are as eagerly contended for by the men of less 
 ample means ; and now it is Sassenachs, protec- 
 tion, and keepers over the whole Highland range. 
 This picture may not be a very bright one to a 
 high-spirited and patriotic Scotchman : still it has
 
 4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 its light as well as shade. The almost fabulous 
 rents paid for all the best beats brings money 
 into the country, and the sportsmen, to say no- 
 thing of being fleeced by the natives, are lavish of 
 their purses, which also swells the stream of wealth 
 flowing into the Highlands. To recur to my open- 
 ing sentence, not a few fine aristocratic young 
 Englishmen, who without this rugged attraction 
 would have been confined to the hunting-field, 
 stubbles, and turnips, are initiated into the more 
 hardening and fatiguing sports of the deer-forests 
 and the grouse-moors. These are the young fel- 
 lows to endure privations and suffer hardship : 
 they have done it before for amusement, and can 
 do it again for duty. 
 
 Highland touring was in vogue long before the 
 furore for its wild sports began, and to the " Lord 
 of the buried past" we owe the interest first ex- 
 cited in the northern wilds. A Scotch tour, 
 however, was in those days an expensive and 
 often very uncomfortable luxury. Most of our 
 southern neighbours were quite content with one 
 trial, feeling satisfied they had seen enough of 
 the uncultivated region and its savages to last
 
 INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 them all their lives. But when the country was 
 thrown open by steamboats and railways, and the 
 natural consequences of better inns and convey- 
 ances above all, when good shootings at very 
 moderate prices were in the market, no wonder 
 that even the cream of England's aristocracy 
 looked forward to their autumn sojourn in the 
 North as the most charming portion of the whole 
 year. 
 
 Thirty years ago there were no Scotch sporting 
 books, and the few English ones were merely 
 works of instruction and dry detail. Now, how- 
 ever, the Scotch books on mountain, forest, and 
 river sport occupy no mean place in our national 
 literature. How much these books stimulated 
 the demand for Scotch shootings it would be 
 difficult to say ; at all events, wild shooting rose 
 prodigiously in the market after their publication. 
 Thirty years since capital small ranges were to 
 be had for 150 to 180. The rapidity with 
 which these rose to thrice that amount was 
 most disheartening to keen grouse -shooters of 
 moderate incomes. The competition for the first- 
 class beats was even greater, and I have been
 
 6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 told by agents that the claimants bid each other 
 up to such a figure that they were sometimes 
 ashamed to take the highest offer. 
 
 Not many years ago there was always a 
 tempting array of shooting quarters advertised 
 in February and March. At present, all the 
 most desirable quarters are secured before com- 
 ing into the market at all. The man of fortune 
 who comes down to the North in early spring, 
 reasonably confident of finding a really good 
 shooting, has often to return sadly disappointed: 
 there are none to be had for love or money. 
 
 Since, then, Highland sport has done so much 
 for Scotland, and created such great interest even 
 in England, it seems curious that no sporting 
 paper has yet been established in the capital of 
 the North. The journal, therefore, alluded to in 
 the preface, arranged to reserve a weekly sheet, 
 and take in seriatim the whole role of field, 
 forest, moor, river, loch, and ocean, feeling confi- 
 dent that the contributions would never fail for 
 lack of material attractive, exciting, and romantic.
 
 SEA-FOWL SHOOTING IN THE 
 EIETH OF FORTH. 
 
 WE have long discovered two distinct and widely 
 different classes amongst men who are fond of 
 recreation with the gun. By far the most nu- 
 merous type are mere shooting-machines, whose 
 delight is a partridge or grouse drive, when the 
 honours of the day are accorded to him who has 
 the largest heap of dead birds at his feet. The 
 plan of the campaign is simple enough. A row of 
 guns take up a position under the mask of a wall, 
 hedge, or drain, crossing the line where the driven 
 birds are sure to fly. A large number of beaters 
 are sent round to raise the game, which keep con- 
 stantly dashing past, or over the heads of the 
 sportsmen. When all the partridge or grouse are
 
 8 SEA-FOWL SHOOTING IN 
 
 moved in one direction, the shooters wheel to the 
 right about, and the flight is again driven from 
 the opposite quarter. No doubt this requires 
 good and very quick shooting, but so does the 
 battue and the pigeon-trap ; and for our own part, 
 we see little difference in these three lazy and 
 luxurious modes of bird butchery. 
 
 The other class to whom we allude, so far as 
 our own experience goes, are far less numerous. 
 They have little sympathy with these massacres ; 
 and, although regarding quick and true shooting 
 as the first requisite, it is no more than the first 
 the A B C of sporting with the gun. 
 
 To feel the superiority of a man of this stamp, 
 you require to see him out over a rugged country, 
 where game is not over plentiful, and when the 
 November blasts have made it wild and wary. 
 The complete self-reliance, caution, and care with 
 which he will give his beautifully trained dogs 
 the benefit of all the best spots to harbour game ; 
 the knowing manner he will approach it when 
 found ; the masterly way he will spring the pack 
 or covey to advantage ; and the exquisitely quick 
 and steady shooting so essential when game
 
 THE FIRTH OF FORTH. 9 
 
 is strong and shy make an empty bag to a 
 shooter with the above qualifications a rare event. 
 It is evident, however, that none can possess them 
 without long experience and acute observation, 
 advantages which have most likely enticed the 
 possessor into the tempting province of the natu- 
 ralist. A new field has thus been opened up. The 
 sportsman studies the nature and habits of the 
 wild creatures of chase, not merely to get shots at 
 them, but also for the pleasure derived from the 
 study itself. In place of being confined to the 
 shooting months, his sporting season comprises 
 the whole year. The advent and departure of 
 migrants ; the discovery of a rare visitor, with 
 perhaps the triumph of adding him to the museum ; 
 the inexpressible delight and excitement of a trip 
 to the crags and cliffs of the ocean, swarming with 
 their varieties of wild sea-birds, with wilder cries, 
 are now objects of even greater interest than his 
 most successful day among the grouse or the deer. 
 The time for studying the peculiar and indivi- 
 dual characteristics of sea-fowl is the month of 
 May. Not only are the birds tamer then, and 
 their instincts more prominently brought out, but
 
 10 SEA-FOWL SHOOTING IN 
 
 each species is decked in its most imposing 
 .and brightest attire. From a lightly-rigged yawl 
 on a sunny May morning with a gentle breeze, 
 the coup d'ceil of a coast, well frequented by sea- 
 birds, and in the neighbourhood of their breeding- 
 rocks, is the most absorbing of all marine views. 
 You see the countless array of guillemots, razor- 
 bills, sea-parrots, cormorants, and grebes some 
 diving at your approach, others rising in your 
 wake, numbers darting on wing, a fair though 
 quick cross-shot, past the bow or stern of your 
 trig little craft ; an infinite variety of gulls, from 
 the giant to the kittywake, flapping lazily over and 
 around you, and the solan in the distance, just 
 poising, then coming down prone like a meteor 
 into the glancing wave, the dull thud of the 
 plunge being heard at a mile's distance. Soaring 
 among them from her secure nest among the 
 most fearful of the beetling cliffs is the sooty 
 raven, scarcely, however, to be distinguished, but 
 by her croak, from a jackdaw ; while the peregrine, 
 also nidifying on a giddy point, and faring sump- 
 tuously on her sea neighbours, seems dwarfed to 
 a merlin.
 
 THE FIRTH OF FORTH. 11 
 
 Amidst this magnificent but, to the uninitiated, 
 chaotic panorama, we have placed the occupant of 
 the picturesque fishing-boat, and will suppose him 
 a keen sportsman just lapsing into the naturalist. 
 Anxious for rare specimens, but totally bewildered, 
 he turns helplessly to the boatmen, who overpower 
 him, as the fowl dash past, with the coast slang 
 nicknames Marrots, Tommie Nories, Nettle- 
 ducks, Coll-the-caunle-wicks, Letter-o'-marques, 
 &c. until, perhaps, the day closes with a boat- 
 load of trash, and only some distant random 
 chances at the wilder, rarer, or more gorgeous, 
 treasures of the deep. 
 
 How vastly intensified in interest does this 
 living sea become to the keen eye of an experienced 
 sportsman, who is at the same time an accomplished 
 naturalist. Not only does he know each kind and 
 genus by book, but from an intimate knowledge 
 of their habits and manners, and a quick eye kept 
 in constant practice, can distinguish every variety 
 at distances which (to a novice) appear impossible. 
 He scans the sea with his telescope, detects at a 
 glance the specimens he is in search of, and imme- 
 diately decides upon the safest approach that
 
 12 SEA-FOWL SHOOTING IN 
 
 offers a fair prospect of a successful shot. Should 
 he secure the coveted object of pursuit, it is not 
 alone its rarity or beauty which makes his heart 
 to dance like his little shallop over the waves, but 
 the associations sure to cling to it in future and 
 far distant years. To him each of those sea-birds 
 that grace his museum suggests its own wild tale 
 of grandeur or beauty. The beetling precipice, 
 the gleaming, tranquil sea, the jutting headland, 
 or booming, boundless old ocean, rise to his mind's 
 eye, fresh and glorious, even by a passing glance 
 at that little denizen of the deep. 
 
 The North Berwick fisherman had written to 
 say that eiders were plentiful, and had begun to 
 seek the nesting islands in the Firth. Accom- 
 panied by my eldest son, and armed with. our 
 shoulder duck-guns, we were next morning early 
 afloat for a cruise in search of them. The day 
 was bright, but the breeze perhaps rather too 
 fresh to give us full advantage in manoeuvring 
 wild fowl. We soon sighted several flocks of 
 snowy drakes with their russet partners ; but from 
 bearing too eagerly down upon them, raised them 
 all out of reach of even a cross-shot. Like all
 
 THE FIETH OF FORTH. 13 
 
 other game, wild-fowl have their fidgety moods, 
 sometimes without any apparent cause. This 
 morning, the eiders being shy and " fretty " on 
 water, we ran down to the islet of Fiddery, hoping 
 for a stalking-shot from the land. Although we 
 expected any feeding or resting fowl would be 
 moored in the sheltered bays, we first made sure 
 of the exposed shore with our glasses, and then 
 noiselessly and stealthily landed on it. Directly 
 opposite was a tiny bay a favourite haunt, with 
 the wind in the quarter in which it then was. 
 The approach was simple, and, to an experienced 
 shot, certain. When I got to the top of the rock 
 immediately above, as I expected, there were 
 about a dozen ducks and drakes diving and sport- 
 ing in joyous security. A sheer descent of seventy 
 yards rather cooled my eagerness to fire, well 
 knowing that even with my trusty "Boss" gun 
 this was a most uncertain shot. Choosing a fine 
 drake, I fired, and he lay motionless on the water ; 
 but my second shot was not so fortunate, as the 
 bird aimed at flew rapidly round the island with 
 the rest. 
 
 The boatman soon fished up the dead bird, and
 
 14 SEA-FOWL SHOOTING IN 
 
 we beat up against the wind, looking out for a 
 fresh chance. I was not long in espying a solitary 
 white speck in the direct line of the team I had 
 shot at, which I at once suspected was my second- 
 barrel bird. Getting well to windward, we care- 
 fully bore down, and the eider, although uneasy, 
 allowed us to run within reach of a long shot, 
 then heavily rose, and hanging against the wind, 
 crossed our bow. We fired together. The bird 
 dropped, and instantly dived, but soon rose again 
 to the surface dead. 
 
 We had now secured two splendid eider drakes, 
 but to complete the case a brown mate was needed 
 for each. Again I scanned the wide expanse of 
 water with the telescope, and soon fixed it on a 
 large bird in the smooth water near the mainland 
 coast. " It's the loon, sir," shouts the boatman ; 
 "there's one of them has haunted these bays for 
 the last fortnight." As I had no specimen yet, 
 the Great Northern was a prize worth trying for. 
 From their weakness in the air, and their amazing 
 power in the water, grebes and divers are very 
 unwilling to take wing, always preferring to baffle 
 their foes in the element to which nature has so
 
 THE FIHTH OF FOKTH. 15 
 
 finely adapted them. The difficulty, therefore, of 
 getting a shot consists in their jealousy of a close 
 approach, and the power they all possess, by swim- 
 ming very low, of slipping under water like magic. 
 The Great Northern is not only the most wary 
 of the diving tribe, but his progress under water 
 is as fast as that of some birds in the air, and the 
 length of his dive often extends to a quarter of a 
 mile. We therefore went to work very cautiously, 
 first tacking about to windward for some time, to 
 accustom the bird to the appearance of the boat, 
 and then gently wearing her, we approached im- 
 perceptibly nearer and nearer. The loon was 
 greedily feeding, and from the shortness of his 
 dives, and the rapidity with which they succeeded 
 each other, he had evidently an abundant feast. 
 Crouching in the bow, with my gun at my shoul- 
 der, I was several times within long range ; but 
 either this quick-eyed grebe dipped down just as 
 my finger touched the trigger, or his position was 
 unfavourable for shot to penetrate the oily feathers. 
 At last, however, I did get a fair chance at sixty 
 yards, and the No. 3 dropped round him in perfect 
 pattern. He was down in a twinkling, and did
 
 16 SEA-FOWL SHOOTING IN 
 
 not show again for some time. We followed, but 
 in vain, for each dive became longer the further 
 we pursued and little did I think that this king 
 of divers had his death-wound, and would yet be 
 mine. Two days after, some poor fishermen found 
 him dead, and, when he was skinned, it was dis- 
 covered that a No. 3 pellet had passed through 
 one side of the head, and lodged above the eye on 
 the other. 
 
 The chase after the Great Northern Diver had 
 taken us out to sea again, and brought us nearly 
 opposite the second islet of the group named " The 
 Lamb." The eastern rocks are a favourite stance 
 of the great cormorant, or " Scart," called by fisher- 
 men at the breeding season, " Letter-o'-marques," 
 from the white patches on the top of each thigh. 
 On the pinnacle of one of these rocks, which rise 
 abruptly out of the water, like the Needles in the 
 Isle of Wight, three were seated in state, sunning 
 themselves luxuriously after their morning feed. 
 There was little hope of a shot from the sea, but 
 no difficulty in getting within seventy yards from 
 the land. On gaining the rocks I had an interest- 
 ing inspection of the trio, who were extending
 
 THE FIRTH OF FORTH. 17 
 
 their long wings and preening their feathers in full 
 enjoyment of the noonday sun. 
 
 Selecting the brightest coloured of the group, I 
 fired from a rest, and the bird dropped into the 
 waves, struggled for an instant on the top, then 
 recovered and plunged down, his companions 
 meanwhile flying out to sea. The boat being at 
 the other side of the island, was some time in com- 
 ing round, and either from the roughness of the 
 sea, or from the cormorant having found a hiding- 
 place on the shore, we never saw it again. 
 
 During the remainder of the day we tried every 
 device, both on land and water, to procure at least 
 one female eider, but failed, neither of two very 
 distant chances from the boat being successful. 
 
 Next morning, the breeze having died away into 
 a dead calm, we were reduced to " wooden sails," 
 a mode of progress and approach relished neither 
 by boatmen nor sea-fowl. At every curl on the 
 distant blue the former waved and whistled for a 
 breeze, but all in vain. They were forced to bend 
 their unwilling backs to a three-mile pull for 
 another search of Fiddery, with the poor prospect 
 of a random shot by the way. 
 B
 
 18 SEA-FOWL SHOOTING IN 
 
 The sight and sound of a row-boat always put 
 wild-fowl on their .guard, and generally stimulate 
 them to be alert and uneasy; so, notwithstanding 
 the frequent groups of eiders and scoters floating 
 all round on the quiet sea, the dip of the oars 
 scared each team far out of reach. Unfortunately, 
 also, the large flock of male and female eiders had 
 posted themselves outside the bays of Fiddery, 
 beyond the reach of shot. As they were most un- 
 likely to move when the water was so smooth, we 
 had to change our tactics by taking post for a flying 
 chance, while the boatmen pulled round to drive 
 them, if possible, within range of our hiding-places. 
 
 A bluff of detached and jagged rock rising 
 abruptly in the sea, a little to the west of the 
 island, afforded me safe ambush, while my son 
 succeeded equally well in securing himself among 
 the rough stones of the Fiddery coast. We had 
 thus a narrow sea between us, where the fowl, if 
 judiciously flushed, would be very likely to pass 
 within reach of either gun, when rounding the west 
 corner of the island from its northern end, where 
 they were now seated. 
 
 A few detached birds dashing past in mid-ehan-
 
 THE FIKTH OF FORTH. 19 
 
 nel, and of course out of reach, showed that the 
 fishermen had succeeded in their task. The main 
 body soon followed this advanced-guard. They 
 simultaneously took wing, but soon separated into 
 three groups. Two of these kept the island side, 
 but the third flew straight for my rock. With 
 eager heart and ready weapon I waited until they 
 skimmed overhead, a quick but fair chance. A 
 female eider dropped on the water to my shot, but 
 seeing she was only winged, I was taking aim with 
 my second barrel when she dived, and did not rise 
 again within range. 
 
 Bang ! bang ! from the islet. My telescope was 
 instantly fixed on my son. He was wading into 
 the sea, where I distinctly saw him pick up a dead 
 bird. Our boatmen, who had been straining hard, 
 now pulled up to my stance, and at the same time 
 my son was making signs to me in a certain direc- 
 tion, so, instead of pursuing my winged duck, we 
 obeyed his signal, and soon spied a solitary bird, 
 which proved a female eider. Upon nearing her 
 she dived, but being hard hit in the body, soon 
 came to the surface again, when we made her safe 
 by a shot.
 
 20 SEA-FOWL SHOOTING IN 
 
 This happy right and left having supplied a 
 companion to each of the eider drakes, we tri- 
 umphed in anticipation of our collection being 
 adorned with these superb examples of natural 
 history. Could I have foreseen that ere the day 
 closed another of these much-admired eiders would 
 have deprived me of a shot at the rarest sea-bird I 
 ever detected in the Firth, I might not have re- 
 garded them so complacently. 
 
 Having landed to search one of the homeward 
 islands, a male eider was asleep on a promontory 
 which flanked a tiny bay. A ledge of rocks, par- 
 allel to both, made the stalk after fowl either in 
 this creek or on the promontory very easy. Ne- 
 glecting (contrary to my wont) to examine the bay, 
 I gave my whole notice to the unsuspecting drake, 
 struck him badly at the sitting shot, and brought 
 him down dead with the other. 
 
 Before I could rise from my hiding, three little 
 sea-fowl swam rapidly into view from the bay. 
 They never saw me, and seeming more surprised 
 than frightened, never attempted to fly. The 
 leader had a hood like a hoopoe, and in the centre 
 of the hood a white star, the Hooded Merganser !
 
 THE FIRTH OF FORTH. 21 
 
 It was a tempting and mortifying moment to 
 watch the little trio, within such fair distance at 
 first, quickly paddle out of reach long before I was 
 "shotted." 
 
 Leaving the eider where he fell, we were soon 
 in full chase ; but the American strangers had, on 
 second thoughts, betaken themselves to their wings, 
 when I ran to warn the men to bring the boat, and 
 I have never fallen in with this rare mergus before 
 or since. When we returned to pick up the dead 
 drake, the fishermen, far from sympathising with 
 my chagrin at losing such a prize, were firmly con- 
 vinced that the eider ought to be ample consola- 
 tion, and was by far the most valuable " fule " of 
 the two. 
 
 With the exception of the black guillemot, and 
 the great cormorant when dignified by his creden- 
 tials, my museum now contained all the native 
 sea-birds of the Firth of Forth. A pair or two of 
 these sable guillemots sometimes hatch on the 
 Island of May, whose dizzy crags also afford a 
 secure night-roost to the scart, while its boisterous 
 sea-coves are the favourite retreat of the green 
 cormorant or shag. The distance of " the May ''
 
 22 SEA-FOWL SHOOTING IN 
 
 from North Berwick is eight miles, but it is neces- 
 sary to be cautious in crossing this channel in 
 an open boat, as a little wind soon raises a heavy 
 sea. 
 
 My usual skipper, Glass, being absent at the 
 herring-fishing, we hired the most sea-worthy 
 fishing-smack in the harbour, belonging to his 
 late pupil and assistant Kelly. Although there 
 were some ugly streamers, what seamen call a 
 " dirty " or " dusty " sky, yet the west wind was 
 gentle, and perfectly fair for our destination, the 
 lighthouse of May. 
 
 Kelly's crew was made up of his father-in-law, 
 an old whale-fisher, and a stout lad who seemed 
 to have been nourished on tobacco and whisky. 
 When the sail was hoisted outside the docks, 
 with the soft west wind just strong enough to 
 fill it, and the Bass and Tantallon spread before 
 us, with all their romantic associations, one's 
 spirit rose as in earlier days. Even our crew 
 appeared to share the enthusiasm not the less, 
 perhaps, from the good supply of meat, drink, 
 and tobacco. If I did catch Kelly casting a fur- 
 tive glance now and then at the streaky horizon,
 
 THE FIRTH OF FORTH. 23 
 
 he seemed ashamed of himself ; as for the old 
 whaler, he regarded sea, sky, wind, everything 
 with utter contempt, except the provision basket. 
 
 In sailing over to the May, the boat might 
 have been freighted with the commoner kind of 
 sea-birds, but we only shot a few for the boat- 
 men. A pair of solans crossed the bow, when 
 my son dropped both a right and left shot 
 and they were cleverly netted as the boat sailed 
 past. A third Hew by the stern, which I killed, 
 but being unwilling to lose time by tacking, we 
 left it on the waves. We declined to shoot again 
 at these geese, which may almost be termed pri- 
 vate property. 
 
 The breeze had freshened, and the waves were 
 high enough to make shooting difficult, and lands- 
 men squeamish. The boat was, however, abreast 
 of the south-west corner of the May, and we 
 were about to hug the land in a search of the 
 western rocks for cormorants and the black guil- 
 lemot. The west wind, so friendly in the morn- 
 ing, was now a bitter foe, for it drove the surf 
 upon the rocks in great booming billows, making 
 it no easy task to discern the difference of sea-
 
 24 SEA-FOWL SHOOTING IN 
 
 birds at any distance, and next to impossible to 
 force the cormorants from the shelter of the caves. 
 In a cavern less exposed to the rolling swell, 
 a pair of shags were perched on a point of rock. 
 The boatmen clapped their hands and shouted, 
 but both birds dropped into the terrific boiling 
 caldron below. They remained so long in this 
 whirlpool that we fancied they had escaped out 
 to sea. At last they emerged and took post on 
 the same ledge. Kelly then threw a piece of 
 wood at them. One dived, but the other flew 
 out, and was shot by my son. As its neighbour 
 did not show again in the cave, it no doubt 
 escaped into the sea by a long underwater swim. 
 The cormorant we secured was a male, in the 
 richest green, with a spring tuft in perfection. 
 
 The black guillemot was not visible to-day, 
 but a pair of peregrines flew out screaming from 
 their eyrie, the sharp flicker of their wings con- 
 trasting with the solemn flap, flap of the sea- 
 birds. 
 
 The ebbing tide made our landing on the 
 May for a trial of the cormorant roosts rather 
 difficult. On our way we called at the light-
 
 THE FIRTH OF FORTH. 25 
 
 house, and the keeper and his wife most civilly 
 agreed to give us tea on our return from the 
 rocks, and allowed us to eke it out by shooting a 
 rabbit. A row of " Letter-o'-marques " were already 
 drawn up on their night quarters. One of the 
 nearest, decked in the most bright and varied 
 colours, looked like their chief. Of course he 
 was the target, but being fixed at far too long 
 a range, dropped down the abyss with the rest, 
 little inconvenienced by the No. 2. Had we 
 not been so eager another overlooked approach 
 would have abridged the distance by thirty 
 yards, when most likely this brilliant specimen 
 would have been ours. The only resource now 
 was to take post above the rocks, and await the 
 return of our fugitives. As dusk was setting in, 
 they soon began to cross backwards and for- 
 wards at long distance. Fearing that darkness 
 would stop our shooting, we were forced to try 
 these random chances, which were all shot- 
 proof ! 
 
 Seated at our snug meal in the lighthouse, 
 Kelly appeared with rueful face. "The nicht," 
 he said, " looked ugly, rain had set in, and they
 
 26 SEA-FOWL SHOOTING IN 
 
 had much difficulty, from the surf and low tide, 
 in getting our carpet-bags out of the boat." I 
 suggested pulling her up on the beach, but Kelly 
 shook his head. They could neither take her 
 out of the water, nor come on shore themselves 
 all night, lest she might be dashed in pieces. 
 We therefore made the poor fellows as com- 
 fortable as we could by a bottle of whisky, 
 some good table-beer, and an ample supply of 
 food. 
 
 We begged our kind host to allow us to see 
 the tower lighted. This was strictly against 
 rules, but he at once agreed to let my son see 
 the lights put out. As this ceremony took place 
 at four in the morning, I was too sleepy to join 
 it; but my son affirmed that a more startling 
 and brilliant illumination he had never beheld. 
 
 A loud rap at six next morning, and Kelly's 
 voice imploring us to leave our beds, roused me 
 from a sound sleep. When the tide was full 
 they had run the fishing -boat into a sheltered 
 creek, but as it was ebbing fast we must embark 
 in less than an hour, failing which the boat must 
 be moved out to sea, and neither we nor our
 
 THE FIRTH OF FORTH. 27 
 
 baggage might be able to get on board. Kelly 
 added carelessly, but slyly, " There is a queer 
 bird diving outside the creek where the boat is, 
 that nane o' us kens what it is." This was a 
 master-stroke. We were down in half the time 
 stipulated, and immediately assured that the 
 unknown was still at his post. I was completely 
 puzzled. At first I fancied the bird a smew, 
 but was corrected by the telescope. Cautiously 
 shoving nearer and nearer with the boat-hook, 
 the little diver at length began to sheer off. 
 Now was the time to fire, and it lay dead to my 
 son's shot a black guillemot, but in the light 
 speckled plumage of winter. 
 
 The sails were scarcely hoisted, when, in the 
 distance, but flying towards us, I distinctly saw 
 another of these guillemots, but this one was 
 black as ebony. He crossed between us and 
 the shore, about 300 yards from the boat. Both 
 telescopes were fixed if possible to mark him 
 down. He soon plumped into the water, and 
 every time the wave rose we had a full view 
 of the black speck on its crest. The jumble of 
 the sea made shooting uncertain, but 1 still pre-
 
 28 SEA-FOWL SHOOTING IN 
 
 ferred a long chance to the probability of flush- 
 ing the bird out of reach by coming sharply down 
 for a closer one. Kelly, as usual, steered to per- 
 fection, and brought our craft down abreast of 
 the prize in the exact line I had pointed out. 
 On the first wave lifting the black prince into 
 view my son fired, but he took wing, and both of 
 us shot at him flying. Kelly said he was hit, 
 and soon his prediction was verified the little 
 bird rose in the air, wheeled, and fell dead in 
 the sea. 
 
 These being the only pair of black guillemots 
 seen, we were all (Kelly excepted) proportion- 
 ably elated. The old whaler spun yarns about 
 seals, white bears, walruses, and other polar 
 wonders. The sea-urchin w r hiffed his pipe and 
 grinned patronisingly. Our skipper, however, 
 still peered stealthily to the west, and seemed 
 unwilling to lose time by a tack after, a group of 
 eiders a little to the south. We were now in no 
 mood to give in, so having settled that I was to 
 fire at the drakes and my son at the ducks, we 
 ran past them at long range. He knocked over 
 his bird, and I struck mine, which flew a little
 
 THE FIRTH OF FORTH. 29 
 
 distance, and then dropped dead. The eider 
 being also called the " St Cuthbert's Duck," we 
 presented this case to my old and very dear 
 friend, one of the ministers of St Cuthbert's. Of 
 the former two cases one is in my brother's 
 collection at Rossdhu, the other in my own. 
 
 Under a rather stiff gale we recrossed the 
 channel, but only when under the lee of the 
 North Berwick coast did our captain's brow 
 clear up. Well did this skilled boatman of the 
 Firth know how suddenly the blast he had been 
 dreading might, like Harpsdale's, come at last! 
 With a quiet chuckle he muttered " ISToo we're 
 a' richt," and joyously, not to say triumphantly, 
 steered into port. 
 
 The death of the black guillemots on 7th April 
 1864 gave rise to the following correspondence: 
 
 "THE BLACK GUILLEMOT. 
 
 " SiE, The pleasantly-written articles upon the 
 wild fowl of the Firth of Forth, with which your 
 papers upon Natural History are agreeably begun, 
 contain a statement, the importance of which the 
 writer seems to have been unconscious of.
 
 30 SEA-FOWL SHOOTING IN 
 
 " In common, I believe, with every resident of 
 the neighbourhood of the Firth who has taken an 
 interest in its wild fowl, I am surprised to hear 
 that the black guillemot (uria grylle), the Tyste of 
 the Orcadians, is still to be met with in its waters ; 
 and I am yet more astonished to hear that its 
 nests are sometimes to be found upon the Isle of 
 May. Were it not that your contributor evidently 
 writes with a competent knowledge of marine 
 ornithology, I should at once consider that he has 
 mistaken young birds of the common guillemot in 
 their transition plumage for their black namesakes. 
 
 " There is no doubt that, if we can rely upon old 
 writers on natural history, the black guillemot did 
 at a former period build on the Bass, and, no 
 doubt, on the May, but I have never happened to 
 meet with any naturalist or sportsman who ever 
 found a single specimen in the Firth. As to their 
 nests, I am myself acquainted with almost every 
 nook and crevice of the Bass and May, and I think 
 I may absolutely say the black guillemot has 
 never been known to build on either within the 
 memory of man. They are found in vast numbers 
 among our more northern islands ; they are consi-
 
 THE FIRTH OF FORTH. 31 
 
 derably smaller than the razor-bill, and their nests 
 are at once distinguished from others by the 
 material fact that, like the little auk, they lay two 
 eggs, whilst the rest of the species lay but one. 
 The eggs, too, are considerably smaller, and much 
 less pear-shaped than those of other rock-building 
 auks. 
 
 " The common guillemot, the razor-bill, and the 
 puffin, breed in the Firth of Forth, and the little 
 auk is an occasional and most interesting winter 
 visitor ; but I confess I read with a doubting sur- 
 prise that any other of the auk tribe has its nest 
 on our islands. 
 
 " That stray specimens may sometimes appear, 
 is not only a possible but a most probable circum- 
 stance ; but that a gentleman should sail out with 
 the intention of shooting black guillemots, and 
 actually succeed in bagging two, will, I think, be 
 looked upon by every local ornithologist as a 
 most remarkable circumstance. I am, &c., 
 
 S." 
 
 The Author writes in reply to this communica- 
 tion: "I am delighted with your correspondent
 
 32 SEA-FOWL SHOOTING, ETC. 
 
 'S.V letter. Sanderson, the bird-stuffer, of 66 
 George Street, knows I went to the May for the 
 express purpose of shooting a black guillemot. 
 He stuffed the two for me when I returned. 
 Kelly, of North Berwick (the fisherman), his 
 father-in-law, and a lad in his boat, saw my son 
 and me shoot them exactly as described, and I 
 refer ' S.' to both these parties. Lastly, the pair 
 is stuffed and placed in my case of rock birds at 
 my house, No. 1 Eoyal Terrace, where I invite 
 'S.' to go and inspect them. One is jet black, 
 the other speckled. Both were shot the same day 
 of April 1864. I have not my journal by me of 
 last year, or I could tell the day. It is in Edin- 
 burgh, at my house there."
 
 DEER-DEIVING IN MULL. 
 
 " Hunts he Bentalla's iiimble deer." 
 
 DEER of the woods, although often large and heavy, 
 are seldom gifted with what foresters call " a good 
 head." The cover of trees is unfavourable to 
 that branching development of the horns which a 
 life on the open hills seems more fitted to foster. 
 As " heath -covered Mull" is entirely grazed by 
 sheep, its deer feed chiefly in the tangled woods 
 and copses, and are loath to show themselves on 
 the bare hill, where they may be chased by a collie 
 dog, or " potted " by its master's " swan post," with' 
 no witnesses to the murder but the " wild flock," 
 the eagle, or the raven. 
 
 I was tenant of two good deer drives in Mull, 
 distant about ten miles from each other, Bentalla, 
 c
 
 34 DEER-DEIVING IN MULL. 
 
 the faithless " Lord of the Isles' " hunting-ground, 
 rising between. The Scalastal range on " the 
 Sound " contained two large woods. One of 
 them, however, called Garmony, had been 
 lately cut, and was next to useless. But the 
 Scalastal wood, when the wind was in the right 
 direction, generally harboured some old deer. 
 To keep all quiet, I also rented Scalastal farm 
 and farm-house, turning my shepherds into game- 
 preservers, and training their sheep-dogs to run 
 the deer. 
 
 Glenforsa, the other shooting quarter, was situ- 
 ated on the opposite side of the island. In ad- 
 dition to some smaller patches, there were the fine 
 hillside coverts of Garrochree and Torlochan the 
 former as wild a jungle as even this rugged island 
 could grow. When either of these shootings was 
 driven, especially if the deer were much frightened 
 and the wind favourable, they were apt to cross 
 Bentalla to the other. So, after a hunt at Scalastal, 
 we were not unlikely to find the same deer next 
 day at Glenforsa, and vice versa. 
 - Like many tenants of deer, we were limited on 
 both shootings. Three harts and two hinds was
 
 DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 35 
 
 the Glenforsa allowance. A like number of hinds 
 on Scalastal, but they were not so strict about the 
 harts. These restrictions seldom annoy the man 
 who kills his full complement, but they are most 
 disgusting to a party who, at the close of a season, 
 are far below the figure it was thus plainly inti- 
 mated they were expected to slay. My predecessor, 
 although assisted by his keeper and other guns, did 
 not kill one deer among them the whole season. I 
 also knew a party in the north, limited to seventy- 
 five harts, end the season with fifteen, and in the 
 shooting of this small lot they were aided by the 
 resident foresters. 
 
 The first year of my Glenforsa lease I had only 
 a few days at its deer. Our first stag was killed 
 by my son when I was in England. I had 
 charged him not to disturb the Glenforsa deer 
 until my return, and he had kept strictly to small 
 game at Scalastal. Two days before I was expect- 
 ed in Mull he drove over to Glenforsa House, with 
 my Scalastal farm overseer, to prepare for our 
 hunt. On the low ground along the banks of 
 Loch-na-Gaul, with the river Knock flowing 
 through it, is a detached strip of plantation
 
 36 DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 
 
 much liked by deer, and, if undisturbed, seldom 
 without them. When moved they have three 
 escapes from this wood. "When they break at the 
 south corner and make for Garrochree, two of these 
 escapes are guarded by the Knock pass. But 
 should they seek safety in Torlochan wood, they 
 slip out from the middle of the plantation, run- 
 ning east over a bare field, at the top of which, 
 under cover of a drain, is placed the rifle. The 
 Knock pass is far the most certain, not only as 
 commanding two escapes, but also from being 
 more used by the deer. 
 
 On the second afternoon my son, having com- 
 pleted his arrangements, agreed with the manager, 
 that as the deer would be nearly certain to break 
 cover at the Knock pass, there could be no harm 
 in giving this patch an afternoon trial. Of the 
 two chances commanded by the Knock pass, one 
 is exactly 120 yards, the other about 30. It is 
 impossible to equalise the distances without sacri- 
 ficing one of the chances. 
 
 Yarrow's shrill yelp in the plantation soon 
 warned my son that the manager had found deer. 
 A large stag broke on the lower side of the river,
 
 DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 37 
 
 came softly round the knolls, and made for the 120 
 yards pass. Here he had to cross the water, but 
 seemed in no hurry to wet his feet. The collie 
 had not yet left the wood, and the hart listened 
 and watched lo see when he did. All this time, 
 the deer being in a slanting posture, my son re- 
 frained from firing, well aware that the moment he 
 attempted to ford he must present a fair broadside. 
 Black Yarrow now flitted from the covert, and the 
 stag cautiously waded into the stream. Crack 
 goes the rifle, down came the deer on his knees 
 recovered, and began to hobble across the current. 
 A shot from the second barrel and he toppled over 
 in mid-stream. 
 
 The first act after killing a deer is to examine 
 where the ball has hit him. This time, there were 
 two marks through the brisket, on the opposite 
 side to the shooter, but only one on the near side ; 
 it was therefore apparent that both balls had 
 entered at the same hole. Considering the dis- 
 tance, this was therefore a beautiful right and left 
 rifle shot. The weight of this deer was 18 stone, 
 and he had a very good head for Mull. I was 
 much pleased with this auspicious start ; the more
 
 38 DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 
 
 so as the manager saw more deer in the wood, 
 which he had refrained from disturbing. 
 
 Dogs thoroughly trained to drive deer coverts, 
 even when running a hot scent, should be taught 
 immediately to quit it, and return to their master 
 at his whistle. The reason is obvious. When 
 the deer are through the passes, further pursuit by 
 a dog only tires him and scares the deer further 
 away. As soon therefore as the quarry before 
 them are past the rifles, the dogs should be called 
 back into the covert to find a fresh track. Often 
 a stray hart or hind turns back by facing the 
 drivers, and remains quietly hid until the wood is 
 searched a second time. An old Mull collie, 
 which once aided our drive, was so knowing, that 
 of his own accord he returned to his master when- 
 ever the deer had escaped the shooters. This 
 sagacious creature knew every ambush guarding 
 the wood, and as soon as the deer were out of 
 danger, quite comprehended that it was useless to 
 follow where there were no rifles to kill. 
 
 Our cover pack consisted of two pure-bred Mull 
 collies, and a mongrel sheep-dog, which looked 
 like a cross between the old Scotch cur and a
 
 DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 39 
 
 jackal The island pair were mis-named Trim and 
 Yarrow by their Tweedside master (my farm 
 grieve), but the nondescript was more aptly styled 
 " the Ugly Buck." He was a cross-grained, eccen- 
 tric, unsociable, surly brute had to have his teeth 
 broken for biting the sheep would follow or obey 
 no one but his shepherd master, and when fairly 
 "blooded" at deer, considered himself discharged 
 from the meaner duties of sheep. Although Trim 
 and Yarrow had good noses, and stuck well to their 
 track, yet somehow I always felt most certain of 
 a shot when the covert rang with the wolf-like 
 howl of the Ugly Buck. 
 
 The day after my landing in Mull was pour- 
 ing rain, but the following brightened up again. 
 Scarcely expecting above one chance, I only put 
 four bullets in my pocket, and took a single-barrel 
 seal-rifle, w r hich fitted me exactly. 
 
 The manager, his two Mull shepherds, and their 
 three dogs, were sent to the far end of the Knock 
 plantation, while I guarded the Knock pass, and 
 my son watched the other escape to Torlochan 
 wood. The dogs had hardly been thrown into 
 covert when they opened full cry. I distinctly
 
 40 DEEE-DEIVING IN MULL. 
 
 heard the hunt begin at the north end, and gra- 
 dually near the south of the plantation. Soon 
 two hinds broke below the river, but instead of 
 making for the ford of the Knock, and giving me 
 the 120-yard chance, they kept the open shore of 
 Loch-na-Gaul, and, contrary to all precedent, took 
 refuge on the hills of Knock. 
 
 I was testily watching their wilful course, when 
 I heard a step approaching on the near side of the 
 river. In a moment I knew it to be a deer's. A 
 dip in the ground concealed the tramper until a 
 pair of horns rose about 30 yards from my hiding. 
 A fairer chance there could not be. He crossed at a 
 trot, and I shot him through the heart. My son 
 from his pass had noted this hart the moment he 
 quitted the wood had marked him confidingly 
 choose his way straight for my hiding-place was 
 well aware that I could not see him until he came 
 slap upon me and, to crown all, perceived my 
 attention fixed on the hinds. The thrilling sus- 
 pense did not cease until he saw me present my 
 rifle. This deer weighed 15 stone, but had a poor 
 head. 
 
 The overseer assured us there were two more
 
 'DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 41 
 
 hinds in the wood, which had " turned back." To 
 give my son his turn, \ve exchanged passes, but 
 fortune again favoured me : the hinds broke at the 
 wood-side for Torlochan, came up the field, and 
 cantered past me at about 60 yards. I rolled over 
 the largest, and if my rifle had been a double-bar- 
 rel, had an easier chance at her companion. 
 
 We now had to choose our stances for a beat of 
 the large hill-wood of Torlochan. Again the most 
 likely pass was awarded to my son, while I chose 
 mine by the side of a detached rock called " the 
 Eock pass." This extensive covert requires to be 
 searched with great care and labour. I heard the 
 shouts of the men now up the hill, now down, 
 then across until I was quite tired out ; not a 
 deer seemed to be in the wood. All of a sudden 
 our pack struck up a jarring chorus. At first the 
 chase bore for my son's ambush, but passing it out 
 of range, made for mine. A hind soon showed 
 herself about 100 yards off. I used my rock for a 
 rest and fired ; the deer staggered, then slowly 
 walked towards me. When within 40 yards she 
 halted a lovely chance. Of course I began to 
 load the single barrel. She listened for a moment,
 
 42 DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 
 
 then slunk behind the adjoining heights. Taking 
 a circuit for the wind, I came round them, and was 
 expecting every instant to come upon the wounded 
 deer, when a fresh pair of hinds turned up at long 
 range on the open heath. Putting up the 200-yard 
 sight, I fired the last of my balls ! I saw it miss 
 the deer and strike the hill about a foot before 
 them. After loading with powder, I put my hand 
 into my pocket for the bullet ! ! Here was a fix 
 for within 100 yards of where I threw away my 
 last ball stood the stricken hind. She allowed me 
 to walk within the fairest range, then limped down 
 the hill, taking refuge in the thickets of Garroch- 
 ree. It was more than an hour ere I could collect 
 my men and dogs, but by that time the scent had 
 cooled, not even the Ugly Buck deigning to notice 
 it. We searched till dusk, by which time I had 
 come to the conclusion that it is less troublesome 
 to take too many bullets than too few. 
 
 THE GARROCHREE STAG. 
 
 He was a lonely one, caring nothing for com- 
 pany, large, intensely cunning, and carrying a
 
 DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 43 
 
 royal head. From his partiality to the imper- 
 vious whins of Garrochree he had gained his 
 title. He never willingly left his fastness, except 
 when the flies forced him, returning to it when- 
 ever the July sun had abated his fierceness. 
 When hunted he ran a ring round and round the 
 thickest underwood, avoiding every open, and 
 confounding the dogs by the labyrinth of his 
 traces. I have known him dodge about in this 
 manner for half a day, and yet never be once 
 seen either by sportsmen or beaters. The well- 
 known " catch a weasel asleep " might well have 
 been applied to him ; and yet this big weasel had 
 been caught napping, but for breaking the pro- 
 verb nearly paid the forfeit of his life. 
 
 A former tenant of Glenforsa had an eight- 
 barrelled rifle, with which he used to astonish 
 the Mull natives by breaking bottles at fabu- 
 lous distances,' and no doubt he was a crack rifle- 
 man at the target. One calm summer day, 
 soon after his taking possession, a wood-cutter, 
 in passing through Garrochree wood, spied a 
 pair of antlers peering out above the low whins. 
 Shrewdly suspecting the owner of the horns could
 
 44 DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 
 
 not be far off, the man of the axe went to 
 
 Glenforsa house and apprised Mr of his 
 
 discovery. The eight barrels were soon shotted, 
 and the rifleman, guided by the woodman and 
 accompanied by the farm-grieve (who told me 
 the above particulars), was soon close to the 
 stag's lair. The rifleman was perfectly concealed, 
 and to increase his chances of success the deer 
 had risen, and, all unconscious of peril, was crop- 
 ping the rich grass within point blank range. 
 The eight barrels were levelled ; barrel 1, the 
 stag started ; barrel 2, looked about to see where 
 the noise came from ; barrel 3, walked a few 
 paces, and then listened ; barrel 4, shook his 
 head and looked towards the enemy ; barrel 5, 
 the stag, like a determined duellist, having ac- 
 cepted five shots, thought he had done enough 
 to prove his courage, and resolved never to stand 
 fire again. 
 
 Our men and dogs having been quite done up 
 by severe work, we gave them a day's rest, to 
 enable them to do justice to our last deer-hunt 
 of the season. But the wind was " wrong " for 
 our final day. No deer consequently in Knock
 
 DEER -DRIVING IX MULL. 45 
 
 wood not a track in Torlochan the evening 
 fast closing in, and our only hope the rugged 
 jungle of Garrochree, To humour the wind and 
 command a view of the hunt, we occupied the 
 high passes, but after the morning failures had 
 about equal hope of moving a rhinoceros as a 
 red-deer. I was listlessly looking at the men 
 taking ground ere they threw the dogs into the 
 thicket, when my eye picked up a deer slowly 
 threading a devious course, but evidently making 
 for the open hill With keen interest I watched 
 its many wayward angles and wheels, when sud- 
 denly halting and casting a glance at the baffled 
 dogs and men, it stalked into the bare ground a 
 majestic royal stag. Choosing the pass immedi- 
 ately beyond those where we were concealed, and 
 bringing his noble profile into full relief against 
 the evening sky, he disappeared leisurely over 
 the ridge of the hill. This was the first time I 
 saw "the Garrochree stag," but it was not the 
 last. 
 
 Our second Mull season began as prosperously 
 as the first, but we had the advantage of another 
 gun, both my sons having got a fortnight's leave
 
 46 DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 
 
 from their regiments. Before settling to regular 
 work, the " green hand " had the honour of draw- 
 ing first blood, by killing a hart of 14 stone, at a 
 scrambling afternoon beat of Torlochan wood. It 
 was a snap in the thick of the trees with an 
 S.S.G. cartridge, and the only shot fired that 
 day. 
 
 Our plan was to give several days first to 
 Scalastal, reserving the last week for Glenforsa, 
 as a bonne bouche. 
 
 It was the first week of October, and the stags 
 had given notice by some trumpet-blasts that the 
 season of warfare was at hand. The Scalastal 
 overseer told us they came down after nightfall to 
 feed on a field of turnips close to the farm-house, 
 and one of them for the last few nights had been 
 " roaring like mad." I was seated by a good fire 
 reading, when the man popped in his head to say, 
 that the stag was " at it again," and urging me to 
 come out and hear his defiant music. The sudden 
 change from the bright and comfortable glare of 
 the fire and candles to the solemn gloom of a 
 moonless and starless night, whose silence was 
 only broken by occasional'bello wings of the stag,
 
 DEEK-DKIVING IN MULL. 47 
 
 suggested to one's fancy an Indian prairie or 
 African desert rather than one of our own 
 Hebrides covered with its brown heath and 
 shaggy wood. 
 
 When the grieve thought my mettle was up for 
 a shot, he slyly observed that a fowling-piece 
 loaded with buck-shot might hit them even in so 
 dark a night, and felt confident that he could 
 grope his way to the gap in the wall where the 
 deer entered to " spoil I the neeps," and by which 
 they also retreated when satisfied. To prevent 
 them getting our wind, we had to make a. con- 
 siderable circuit through rough hill ground, to 
 clamber over a high fence, and, worst of all, to 
 cross Scalastal brook. Had I not been confident 
 the man could find his way blindfold, I should 
 certainly have declined the whole thing. No 
 sooner had we quitted the outer door into the 
 black still darkness, than I felt powerless as a 
 child. The overseer, however, was alert enough. 
 First tracing a sheep-path to guide him to the 
 fence, which he followed down until he discovered 
 the rude steps he sought, then listening for the 
 brook/ he rather anxiously whispered, "If we
 
 48 DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 
 
 were but through the burn," and led the way. 
 The burn was full of large stones, deep linns, and 
 swollen by recent rain ; but by finding the ford 
 we managed to scramble through, about knee- 
 deep. Guided by the bellowing of the deer (for 
 we now distinguished more than one roaring), the 
 gap in the turnip field was easily found, and I 
 was quickly squatted, so as to have the quarry 
 between me and the sky when steadying them- 
 selves for the leap down from the field into the 
 moor. My sons and the shepherds had to move 
 them from the lower end, where they were now 
 feeding, and when they reached the gap they 
 would be about ten paces from my ambush. A 
 few minutes of suspense, and we heard the rush 
 of the deer bounding in our direction. They 
 halted with only the wall between us. Every 
 moment I expected a dark figure on the sky-line, 
 but they seemed bent on trying our patience. 
 Only when the drivers were close on them did 
 they deign to move, and then, instead of their 
 convenient egress, wandered alongside the wall 
 and made an uncomfortable exit at the burn ! 
 The wind being all right, it was impossible they
 
 DEER -DRIVING IX MULL. 49 
 
 could either have smelt, seen, or heard us, and we 
 could only account for the mishap by that caprice 
 common to all living creatures as well as deer. 
 When groping our way home, we consoled our- 
 selves by the hope that we should certainly find 
 these same harts next day in Scalastal wood. 
 
 When the wind is north, the south passes of 
 course guard the extensive oak copse of Scalastal. 
 They are four in number, nearly in line. As the 
 wood hangs on a hillside, the passes rise one 
 above the other, and were known to us as the high 
 pass, the middle pass, the low pass, and the lowest 
 pass. Attended by the grieve, to point out the 
 ground, we scaled the hill, directing the shepherds 
 to allow us twenty minutes law, before throwing 
 the dogs into the low side copsewood flanked by 
 the burn. I preferred the middle pass (medio tut 
 c&c.), iny eldest son the high one (excelsior), his 
 brother the highest he could get ! and the lowest 
 was left to itself and the deer. 
 
 Both my sons had taken their ground, but the 
 
 overseer was in the act of pointing out mine, when 
 
 the lugubrious tones of the Ugly Buck swelled out 
 
 in the wood close beneath. In an instant a hart 
 
 D
 
 50 DEER-DEIVING IN MULL. 
 
 burst from the thicket, and ran past at a sling- 
 gallop. "Noo, sir," from behind me certainly a 
 thoughtless hint, which has coaxed many a young 
 sportsman into a dead miss. Fortunately, in this 
 instance, the shooter was old and callous, so he 
 took his time, and the hart fell dead in the heather. 
 " Look oot, sir, for anither." The second warning 
 fully atoned for the first. It was scarcely given 
 when another hart galloped fair across our path, 
 and he also rolled head over heels on the hillside. 
 My favourite " Henry " rifle was loaded again in a 
 twinkling, but no more deer turned out, neither 
 did any try my sons' ground ; but we heard from 
 a neighbouring shepherd that a third hart had 
 sneaked out at the rejected pass. The two killed 
 were exactly the same weight, 15 stone, and both 
 were shot through the shoulder, galloping, at 70 
 yards' distance. 
 
 The turnip field was quiet enough to-night, and 
 not a roar heard far or near. Suspecting that "the 
 lowest pass " fugitive would return in the night 
 to Scalastal wood in search of his brethren, we 
 arranged another drive for next morning. At this 
 hunt our posts were the same, except that my
 
 DEER-DEIVING IN MULL. 51 
 
 second son was now convinced that it is sometimes 
 good policy to choose the lowest place. The dogs 
 soon found a hot track, but the run was long, and 
 the deer stubborn. For nearly two hours they 
 stuck to the scent, threading their nimble quarry 
 round every rugged knoll and through many a 
 tangled thicket. At last, when least expected, and 
 the cry of the dogs at the furthest point of the 
 covert, the object of their pursuit, in the shape of 
 an old hind, quietly stole out of the wood, and 
 stood opposite me, listening a fine broadside, 
 though rather distant chance. I fired, and struck 
 her hard. She turned again for hiding to the 
 copse, but a shot from the second barrel brought 
 her down. There were no more deer found all 
 day, so the hart had not returned. 
 
 Our last Scalastal day was intended for black 
 game and grouse, and as the cutting of Garmony 
 wood (which had spoilt it for deer) made fine open 
 shooting at black game, we gave it the first trial. 
 Our bags were fast filling with young blackcocks, 
 and old ones too, before we got to the further end 
 of the wood, where the moor-ground of Garmony 
 and Fishness begins. Here we meant to range for
 
 52 DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 
 
 grouse, but, to our surprise, a deer was watching 
 our motions on this open moor, distant about half- 
 a-mile. As it was a very small hind, we thought 
 the No. 5, if near enough, might possibly add her 
 to the game list of the day. Leaving my youngest 
 son at the. spot where the deer was likely to enter 
 the wood, and sending my eldest round the knolls, 
 to take post a little way above her, I coupled up 
 our brace of setters, making them and the retriever 
 follow me. The attention of the deer was at once 
 fixed on me and my dogs. She never took her eye 
 from us until, having got fairly in her rear, I 
 began to whistle and draw up. As I hoped, she 
 went away at a walk, looking now and then over 
 her shoulder to see if she was pursued. The 
 marksman above had thus ample time to shift his 
 ground, so as to meet her at the nearest point 
 among the heights. She never detected the ambus- 
 cade until within 40 yards, when she was saluted 
 by a right and left. Starting off at speed, she 
 made straight for the other gun, but the rough 
 ground soon hid her, until we heard a single shot. 
 Glad that it was not a double one, we hurried up 
 to see the sportsman triumphantly seated on his
 
 DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 53 
 
 quarry. It was only a yearling, and had been 
 fairly hit by the double shot, some of the pellets 
 we picked out of the hair not having even pene- 
 trated the hide. The single shot was only about 
 10 yards off, and killed her on the spot. 
 
 Early next morning our "'bus" was at the 
 door for Glenforsa. This massive equipage had 
 a railed roof strong enough to bear a ton, im- 
 movable windows, and a low door at the stern, 
 usually strapped open. We yoked the heaviest of 
 the farm horses as wheeler, and in the lead an old 
 white Mull garron of twenty-five, harnessed with 
 cart ropes, and ridden by the lightest shepherd 
 as postilion. When the top was loaded with 
 provisions, and the inside filled by sportsmen, 
 dogs, and rifles, with the overseer as state coach- 
 man, we grinded slowly but merrily along to the 
 wonder and amusement of Mull residents. 
 
 The wind had not been in " the richt Glenforsa 
 airt" for some days, so of course there were 
 few deer on the ground. Our first hunt was 
 thoroughly unsuccessful. Only one hind in " the 
 Knock," which bounded past me out of all fair 
 distance for Torlochan wood. I put up the long
 
 54 DEER-DEIVING IN MULL. 
 
 sight, and missed with both barrels. We were 
 now sure of at least one deer in Torlochan, and 
 as usual took post to guard the runs from this 
 wood to Garrochree. The highest Torlochan pass, 
 which I chose, commands a fine view of Garroch- 
 ree, so I was nearly certain to detect deer leaving 
 either wood. The dogs soon found the hind in 
 Torlochan, and chased her round the wood, when 
 she bolted through an unguarded pass into Gar- 
 rochree. Trim and Yarrow followed in company, 
 and I was tracing their course, and trying to 
 make out the quarry among the trees, when full 
 before me, and within a short distance of his first 
 escape, stood the Garrochree stag. Well aware 
 that the dogs were not after him, he was com- 
 placently watching the hunt, and when he saw 
 his territory fairly invaded retreated through his 
 customary defile. I looked revengefully at his 
 exit, and hoped to come round him yet. With 
 the exception of these two deer, all our coverts 
 were drawn blank, and after a hard day's work 
 we returned to Glenforsa House cheered, how- 
 ever, by a change of the wind. 
 The customary rest-day was given to the pack,
 
 DEEE- DRIVING IN MULL. 55 
 
 which we devoted to the Glenforsa pheasants, 
 killing the round dozen, besides hares and rabbits. 
 As the wind had continued steady, we felt sure 
 of deer next day, and in walking home were 
 concerting the best mode of driving the covers, 
 when the overseer met us with dejected mien. 
 " The Ugly Buck has bolted after his master to 
 Scalastal," says he. " We cheated him a' day 
 that Dugald was here, but the naasty beast fan' 
 us oot and set after him." To supply the place 
 of the truant we asked a day's driving from the 
 shepherd who owned the old dog already refer- 
 red to, which was at once cheerfully given. 
 
 Maclean and his collie walked up the avenue 
 next morning just such a study as would have 
 charmed the eye and inspired the pencil of our 
 late unrivalled Wilkie. He was a tall, broad- 
 shouldered, handsome young man, with black 
 curly hair streaming under the blue bonnet, a 
 shepherd's crook in his hand, and that peculiar 
 shamble which proved at once that the roads were 
 his detestation, and the hills his delight. His 
 dog, known as the best in Mull, would not have 
 been tolerated among the useless showy creatures
 
 56 DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 
 
 that generally take first prizes at dog exhibitions, 
 for it required a thorough sportsman to appre- 
 ciate his points. Low in size and stiff in gait, 
 his limbs slightly curved, and his hair wiry at a 
 passing glance most people would have called 
 him ugly; but the broad chest, the round firm 
 foot, the breadth of the head between the ears, 
 and the exceeding intelligence and mildness of 
 the eye, would soon have arrested the attention 
 of a real judge of canine merit to the exclusion 
 of all other fanciful points of useless beauty. 
 
 Wishing to take full service out of the man and 
 his dog, we set him to the large rough woods of 
 Torlochan and Garrochree first, reserving "the 
 Knock" for the evening, if we had time. After 
 giving strict injunctions to the grieve not to allow 
 his dogs to break into Garrochree again, I chose 
 the lowest pass, where the hind eluded us before. 
 The chance is generally a long-running one, but 
 open and broadside. The dogs found at once, and 
 stuck to their game beautifully. Several times 
 the deer came close to my pass, then seemed to 
 lose heart when facing the open, and returned to 
 the shelter of Torlochan. There was a larch plan-.
 
 DEER- DRIVING IN MULL. 57 
 
 tation close to me, by which deer might have 
 skulked into Garrochree, but it was so near to the 
 cultivated ground that they were afraid to try it. 
 Yet, after several times shirking her " beaten path," 
 the hunted deer bounded down this wood within 
 40 yards of the bush where I lay in wait. The 
 shot was so quick as to be almost a snap : she 
 darted forward like the wind. My left barrel was 
 so arrant a snap that I never saw the deer drop. 
 After despatching her with my knife, I found my 
 first ball had passed through her entrails, and 
 the second broken both her hind legs. Had it not 
 been for this last fortunate chance, she might pos- 
 sibly have escaped for the present, although cer- 
 tain to die soon after in the woods. 
 
 Before disturbing Garrochree, we went by the 
 side of Loch Baa to a small lonely oak copse, where 
 a good hart had harboured all summer. My pass 
 was again the low one, and by lying flat I had the 
 benefit of a fine rest for the rifle. No sooner into 
 covert than the pack opened, and in a short time 
 I spied the stag's horns coming out of the wood. 
 It was an enviable chance fair, open, slow, and 
 broadside. It would have been a bungle had he
 
 58 DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 
 
 not dropt to shot. Weight, 17 stone, and a very 
 good head. 
 
 Now for the Garrochree stag ! " We know his 
 tricks only let him try them," was the boast of 
 our party when marching to rouse the doomed 
 monster. His retreat was securely barred by my 
 eldest son, while I took my former vantage-ground 
 to give notice of his approach by a wave of my 
 cap. He was at home as usual, but no persuasion 
 could force him from his fastness. In vain Mac- 
 lean's dog found him several times hid in an im- 
 penetrable thicket : he always ran the ring of the 
 jungle, and then clapping suddenly down, was lost 
 until he was rested for another race. I never 
 ceased watching the old collie, and never saw such 
 endurance and pluck shown by any dog that ran 
 the, foot. Sticking to his track like a bloodhound, 
 not once overrunning it, or slacking his pace, 
 facing briars and whins that appalled the other 
 dogs, and all the time attending to the slightest 
 signal of his master, he proved himself nobly pos- 
 sessed of intelligence, perseverance, and self-com- 
 mand, qualities which have always been the making 
 of great men !
 
 DEEE- DRIVING IN MULL. 59 
 
 Beturning home jaded enough by a hard day, 
 yet pleased with its success, we were welcomed by 
 the Ugly Buck and his master, just arrived from 
 Scalastal. As we dared not part them again, we 
 despatched the pair in the fishing coble to bring 
 home the hart the hind lay within a few hundred 
 yards of the house. 
 
 A Scotch mist was a good excuse for declining 
 the hills next morning, and as there were only two 
 more days before the steamboat touched at our 
 island, the dogs would be nicely rested for the con- 
 cluding hunt. It was a lovely one that last day 
 in Mull, bright, calm, and bracing enough to in- 
 spirit a clod. Of course, the first point to prove 
 was whether the stag would try skulking tactics. 
 A short cut led me to the look-out on the hill, but 
 my son had to go round with the beaters and 
 ascend the high ground from behind, so as to 
 humour the wind and reach his ambush unob- 
 served. I saw him breasting the hill and nearly 
 on its crest, when one of the shepherds thought- 
 lessly called to the dogs. It was a low caution, 
 yet was distinctly heard by me through the thin 
 air, and of course by the wily deer. As the rifle-
 
 60 DEEE- DRIVING IN MULL. 
 
 man, however, was now on the hill-top, and rapidly 
 descending to his post, all seemed safe, when at 
 this critical moment, and never suspecting that an 
 enemy was marching parallel and would soon be 
 in possession of the defile, quietly emerged from 
 the thicket the object of our wiles. Scarcely able 
 to restrain my impatience, I yet felt sure that a 
 " haste signal " would put the stag on his guard ; 
 but if left to his own devices, he might possibly 
 linger until retreat was death. The marksman, 
 equally unconscious of the magnificent trophy 
 almost within reach of his rifle, stepped briskly 
 on, and was within rifle shot of the pass when the 
 deer glided carelessly into it. Had he been aware 
 of the position of his victim, even now the stag 
 could not have escaped; but by inadvertently 
 crossing his wind the danger was instantly reveal- 
 ed. Eaising his branching front, and snuffing the 
 "tainted gale," he vanished suddenly round the 
 hill, and with him all hope of adding to our list 
 the royal head of the Garrochree stag. 
 
 As there were no more deer in Garrochree, the 
 hunt was sent round to the north end of Torlochan 
 to beat up for the south passes, which we had now
 
 DEEK-DKIVING IN MULL. 61 
 
 to guard. My son having chosen the low pass, 
 where the last hind fell, I had simply to face 
 about, and walk a few forward paces to command 
 the high runs. A view of the distant sea, flanked 
 by its noble range of mountains, with the silvery 
 Loch Baa at my feet, had pretty well lulled my 
 vigilance, when a single shot from below roused 
 me from my reverie. The three dogs soon after 
 swept through the low pass full cry, and, skirting 
 the shores of the loch, seemed making for the 
 rough cover of Garrochree. Although nearly a 
 mile above, I saw a small object take the water 
 and strike out for the opposite side. Fixing the 
 telescope, I felt satisfied that the noise had scared 
 a sheep (no unfrequent result) from the low banks 
 into Loch Baa for safety. It had nearly gained 
 niid-loch when I heard the rapid stroke of oars, 
 and presently the fishing-coble, pulled by the 
 shepherds at their utmost stretch, headed back the 
 swimmer in the direction from which it had 
 started. I now distinctly traced two animals in 
 the water, and their pursuer running to meet them 
 at the salmon-point, where they seemed bent on 
 landing. He fired, and missed the head of one,
 
 62 DEER- DRIVING IN MULL. 
 
 which wheeled about and swam for another point, 
 but its companion struck ground and fell dead to 
 the second barrel The boatmen quickly took the 
 sportsman on board, and ere the first he fired at 
 could gain the shore he shot her through the head. 
 The pair, an old hind and her calf, were the only 
 deer in Torlochan wood, and the marksman being 
 now in no humour to throw away a chance, had 
 hit the hind through the back running, at 130 
 yards, when she took the water, followed by her 
 calf. The latter was fortunately a male, so we had 
 exactly completed our year's lot of three harts and 
 two hinds. 
 
 A CONTRETEMPS. 
 
 I shall conclude these wood-driving remini- 
 scences of Mull by a deer -stalking incident at 
 my next shooting quarter, which, as "a comedy 
 of errors," was quite unique. 
 
 Accompanied by a friend and my second son, we 
 were returning from fishing the high pools of the 
 Falloch, when the hill- watcher met us in hot haste 
 with the welcome news that a couple of harts were 
 feeding in a wild corrie of the Arnan, and he did
 
 DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 63 
 
 not think they were likely to be disturbed, or quit 
 their ground for some time. 
 
 Leaving our friend and the keeper to finish the 
 lower waters of the river, my son and I made short 
 work of exchanging rods for rifles, and were soon 
 at the base of the Arnan hill. The watcher's face 
 grew long, for the deer had shifted, and although 
 we were all right as to the wind, yet a slight move- 
 ment among any of the numerous sheep feeding all 
 round might instantly put them on their guard. 
 
 Peter Eobertson, of " the Black Mount," had 
 kindly lent us a very good lurcher for bringing 
 wounded deer to bay, yclept Friday, whose black 
 coat was another source of anxiety. Sending the 
 man forward with a telescope, we squatted down 
 with the lurcher behind a bank, determined to wait 
 patiently till our spy was thoroughly satisfied. In 
 about half-an-hour he returned, his radiant visage, 
 even before he spoke, showing all was right. The 
 harts, he told us, were resting on a height some 
 way off, but by humouring the ground I soon got 
 a capital view of them. They might be approached 
 from below or from above, but I always like the 
 high stalk best, as deer are so much less apt to
 
 64 PEEK -DRIVING IN MULL. 
 
 look up than down hill. In this instance the 
 watcher was clearly for the low approach, as he 
 feared our deerhound might scare the sheep, scat- 
 tered thickly over the heights. Notwithstanding, 
 I decided to risk it, and by stalking the sheep and 
 screening the dog among us, we at last got safely 
 beyond them. The harts were now close at hand ; 
 so leaving the watcher with Friday on the leash, 
 we were soon at the back of the knoll, where we 
 had seen them lying. I directed my son to keep 
 about eighty yards above me, lest they might have 
 risen, and separated, but not to show himself until 
 I had fired. 
 
 On looking through a tuft of heather, I saw 
 the deer on their legs fine side chances the 
 largest about 50, and the other fully 100 yards 
 off. I fired a double shot ; and my son called 
 down, "You've done for them both." The near 
 one ran a short way and fell dead, but the other, 
 dropping on its knees, rolled over the opposite 
 side of the height, on the crest of which it was 
 standing, and limped down the hill until close to 
 my son, where it halted, staring at him within 
 pistol-range. At this moment, a third hart gal-
 
 DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 65 
 
 loped across the face of the corrie, which I mis- 
 took for the wounded one, and called to the 
 watcher to slip the dog. There was a beautiful 
 course, Friday turning the deer whenever he tried 
 the steep, but down-hill the hart had the best of it. 
 Expecting soon to be warned by the bay that our 
 fugitive was " at a standstill," we all followed in 
 pursuit ; but when poor Friday returned chop- 
 fallen and bloodless, our disappointment was ex- 
 treme. " At any rate, one of them is safe/' says 
 the younger sportsman. "I should think so," 
 rejoined the elder, " when I measured his head ! " 
 " Measured his head ! why, he came to me, his leg 
 swinging like a flail, and stood about fifteen paces 
 off. I could almost have knocked him down 
 with the butt of the rifle." " I saw the deer dead 
 enough in the heather; and if the Captain saw 
 anither, there must have been three," put in the 
 watcher. " Well," says the first speaker, " if there 
 is one lying dead, you are sure enough of the 
 wounded one, for he couldn't outrun a man, far 
 less a dog. I only didn't fire because I felt sure 
 I could walk up to him." 
 
 Friday had, however, taken us two long hill 
 E
 
 66 DEER -DRIVING IN MULL. 
 
 miles from the spot, and fully an hour and a half 
 had passed since the chase began. When we got 
 to the place where the wounded hart stood, he 
 was nowhere to be seen. We sought the hill till 
 evening, but the ground was very rough, and 
 covered with the longest heather, also full of deep 
 holes. Next day the search was renewed with 
 additional dogs and men, but without finding any 
 traces of the stricken hart. Since this series of 
 stalking blunders, I have always recommended 
 young deer-stalkers to adopt the Kirkpatrick's 
 motto, " I will mak sicker."
 
 LOCH SALMON-FISHING. 
 
 WHEN salmon -fishing in the Tweed many years 
 ago, with one of the most scientific lidbitu&s of 
 that river, I casually asked him whether a late 
 celebrated Professor was really so good a fisher as 
 he got credit for ? He answered, with a shrug, 
 " Oh, he's only a trouter." Had this man been 
 only a salmoner, a plain inference might be drawn ; 
 but he was undeniably as expert at small fish as 
 large. Indeed, I cannot conceive an adept at sal- 
 mon-fishing who has not laid the foundation by a 
 thorough knowledge of all the best modes of cap- 
 turing trout. For my own part, I began at six 
 years old, with a crooked pin and worm, to dabble 
 for minnows and loacb.es> being gradually pro- 
 moted to a hook and float for perch-angling; then
 
 68 LOCH SALMON -FISHING. 
 
 ascending to burn-trout with bait, which naturally 
 led the way to burn-trout with fly. 
 
 Once fairly entered at fly, my progress was 
 rapid. I soon became dissatisfied with my basket 
 unless it contained some good ones; and, when 
 large yellow trout in summer became shy of rising 
 to artificial flies, changed the lure to minnows and 
 other natural baits. At this time, too, I was a 
 keen and successful pike-troller, and these fresh- 
 water sharks first whetted my taste for really big 
 fish. Having the advantage, however, of being 
 near some fairish sea-trout streams, one autumn 
 convinced me that the salmo trutta made the best 
 sport of any fish I had yet tried. No doubt large, 
 lazy, well-fed yellow trout were powerful rivals in 
 spring, but they were only attainable with bait in 
 autumn, when the reign of the white trout with 
 fly began. 
 
 As I had opportunity, I tried a cast for grilse or 
 salmon ; but my knowledge of the habits of fish 
 and my practice being alike limited, the rises 
 were of course few and far between, so I always 
 turned with increased zest to the fat yellow trout 
 in May, or the silvery sea ones in September. It
 
 LOCH SALMON -FISHING. 69 
 
 was not until I was thoroughly acquainted Math 
 the nature of fish, and had acquired perfect com- 
 mand of the salmon rod, that the intense excite- 
 ment of hooking a 2 0-pound er tamed down my 
 interest for all minor angling. 
 
 With the exception of boat-fishing in strictly 
 preserved rivers, angling for large fish, in order to 
 reach the deep pools and heavy streams where 
 they lie, requires a length of line which few can 
 ever attain to throw. But when the river banks 
 are at the same time encumbered by trees or other 
 obstacles, the rods who can fish it \vell become 
 select indeed. Of course the rises decrease in pro- 
 portion to the want of power in reaching the casts ; 
 and the angler, however expert with a small rod 
 and fly, loses confidence when he looks over his 
 shoulder and sees a salmon struggling at his neigh- 
 bour's line, hooked in the very pool he was unable 
 a few minutes before to cast over. With the loss 
 of confidence his patience also deserts him, and he 
 returns to yellow trout, a stanch stickler for the 
 theory that trouting is the most scientific of all 
 fishing. But if a man has thorough mastery of a 
 large rod, and quite comprehends the ways of the
 
 70 LOCH SALMON -FISHING. 
 
 noble fish he is trying for, also the various moods 
 of water, sky, air, time of day, &c., when the mon- 
 ster may be most successfully lured, the crown- 
 ing requisite, patience, always conies of its own 
 accord. 
 
 In ordinary rivers the most expert angler well 
 knows that he must not expect many rises of big 
 fish ; he therefore uses all his skill and experience 
 to hook those he does move. This attention con- 
 stantly increases his stock of knowledge, until he 
 feels certain he can hook them if they can be 
 hooked. 
 
 "Where the rises are more numerous, there is not 
 the same pains taken to profit by them ; and this 
 natural consequence partly explains what I have 
 also noticed in shooting viz., that a man who has 
 lived among preserves, far from being so good a 
 sportsman, is frequently not even to be compared 
 as a steady shot with another whose whole practice 
 is over wild unenclosed lands. The one blazes 
 thoughtlessly away, committing time after time 
 the same errors; while the other notes every miss, 
 and endeavours to correct it next opportunity. 
 There is also no doubt that both the angler and
 
 LOCH SALMON -FISHING. 71 
 
 shooter who have to work and think for their 
 sport, acquire a self-command and nerve only to 
 be obtained in this school. 
 
 Although loch and river fishing seem distinct 
 departments of the craft, yet the more closely they 
 are studied the nearer do they approximate to 
 each other. When white trout and salmon enter 
 a fresh loch, if there is no stream large enough to 
 ascend, they press to the mouths of the feeding 
 burns ; or should the loch itself be small, they 
 first choose (as in rivers) the feeding-grounds 
 farthest from the sea, those nearer gradually fill- 
 ing with " back fish." They have favourite rocks 
 and banks all over the loch, exactly as they have 
 favoured pools and streams in rivers. Lochs, as 
 well as rivers, are most successfully fished when 
 they fall after a heavy flood. In some places of a 
 loch, like some pools of a river, fish never rise well 
 at the fly, although the part of the loch and the 
 pool of the river may look very tempting to the 
 angler. 
 
 White trout and salmon creep down nearer the 
 outlet of a loch as autumn advances, preparatory 
 to choosing their spawning -beds. The top of a
 
 72 LOCH SALMON -FISHING. 
 
 small loch is therefore best early in the year, the 
 lower parts gradually improving as the season 
 draws on. If, however, the feeders of a loch are 
 large enough for fish to ascend, their first object 
 is to seek them, and press up. In the smaller 
 lochs the feeding burns may admit sea-trout 
 during floods, but are seldom large enough for 
 salmon ; the consequence is, that all the heavy 
 fish remain in the loch till harvest, and are very 
 apt to haunt the mouths of brooks during a spate. 
 This is the case even in Loch Lomond, where, 
 with the exception of the outlet (the Leven), there 
 is no stream where salmon dare enter, except at 
 the spawning-time; and it is amazing to see great 
 fish at that season in mountain brooks that will 
 scarce cover, far less conceal them. 
 
 In Loch Awe, where the fine feeder TJrchay is 
 ready to receive them, salmon seldom go up the 
 loch at all. When clear of the river Awe (the 
 outlet of the loch), they immediately press on to 
 the Urchay, and enter it. Consequently, salmon 
 are scarcely ever taken in the loch, except be- 
 tween the mouths of these rivers. 
 
 When salmon know they have the safety of a
 
 LOCH SALMON -FISHING. 73 
 
 loch to look to as the reward of their efforts for 
 fresh water, the struggle they hazard to gain their 
 object is almost incredible. I have watched a 
 shoal boring up the Knock for Loch Baa, when 
 they had to turn on their sides to force them- 
 selves through the shallows, and the noise caused 
 by these exertions could be heard at a consider- 
 able distance. At first I fancied some creature 
 was fording the stream, and, on walking up, saw 
 monsters of from 10 to 25 Ib. fighting against 
 water often only a few inches deep. 
 
 I have always been convinced that trolling 
 is ruination to fly-fishing in small salmon lochs. 
 All the shores, banks, and rocks have their feeding 
 or resting fish driven into deep water, scared not 
 only by the boat, but even by the long trolling 
 lines sweeping over. 
 
 Fly-practice in lochs from a boat is far less 
 startling to fish ; and the more complete the 
 angler's knowledge of every sunk bank, rock, or 
 shallow point, the less likely will he be to frighten 
 them away. In order to obtain this angling 
 geography, the loch should be surveyed in dry- 
 weather ; and when the different feeding-grounds
 
 74 LOCH SALMON-FISHING. 
 
 are discovered, they should be noted by marks 
 from different positions opposite to or crossing- 
 each other. A decayed stump of a tree exactly 
 opposite a shepherd's hut, making a triangle with 
 a rock or the end of a point, may be the only 
 available beacons to guide you to a first-rate mid- 
 loch cast. For two years I had the right to one 
 side of Loch Baa, and by these simple means, 
 before the first season was half over, knew all the 
 established casts fully as well as the fishing guides, 
 and found out some more they had no idea of. 
 
 Perfect confidence in this local knowledge is 
 the foundation of success in lochs ; and when the 
 fisher fully possesses it, and not till then, will he 
 perceive how many blunders he can prevent his 
 boatman from committing. For instance, effec- 
 tually to fish the feeding-grounds with the least 
 risk of scaring them, it is absolutely necessary to 
 know the exact spots where the salmon lie. When 
 the feeding-ground has a sheer descent from shallow 
 to deep water, this may be shrewdly guessed ; but 
 when the deep is reached gradually, a rise in the 
 loch, or even a change of wind, may alter the seats 
 of salmon a considerable way either side. As the
 
 LOCH SALMON -FISHING. 75 
 
 angler's object is to keep his boat out of sight in 
 deep water, and pitch his fly over the fish, when 
 the water deepens suddenly from the bank or rock, 
 he has simply to fish round them with a line 
 longer or shorter, according to the state of the 
 atmosphere or the power of the breeze. The salmon 
 will all be found on or near the brow, and in a 
 dark or windy day they do not see the boat until 
 close on them. I have seen the heaviest fish rise 
 and hook in such weather within a few yards of 
 the boat a rare chance for men who throw an 
 indifferent line. 
 
 But should the day be clear, with only a light 
 breeze, especially when casting over shallow points 
 and places where the water deepens by inches, none 
 but an accomplished master of the salmon-rod 
 need hope for much success. Such ground must 
 be approached with the greatest caution, or you 
 may dash in among the shoal unawares. It is 
 always best to err on the safe side, and begin to 
 throw before you expect a rise, drawing in to the 
 point where you think salmon really are by slow 
 degrees. 
 
 Should the morning be favourable for fly, a little
 
 76 LOCH SALMON -FISHING. 
 
 attention to the rising of the fish will save both 
 time and trouble ; but when the weather is not so 
 propitious, and, by consequence, few rises to be 
 seen, care and caution, far from wasting the day, 
 are the chief means of insuring success at its close. 
 There was a long promontory half-way down 
 Loch Baa, called " the Salmon Point," from being 
 their grand rendezvous. The area of the feeding- 
 ground extended to nearly 200 yards ; and when 
 they were rising briskly, we could fish it over in 
 half the time required if they were dull and 
 sulky. This cape was one of the favoured haunts 
 where fish were sure to harbour all summer ; and 
 even on the days when none were seen feeding on 
 the natural fly, you might depend on their resting 
 below hence the need of always going carefully 
 over it. On two occasions, when wind and sky 
 were all that could be wished, I had carefully 
 gone over the Salmon Point without a rise, or 
 even seeing a fish stir at the natural fly. The 
 first time, when changing my cast for a fresh 
 trial, the head of an otter above the best part of 
 the water showed that my trouble would be use- 
 less. On the next unsuccessful day we were
 
 LOCH SALMON -FISHING. 77 
 
 resting on the shore after sweeping the water 
 thoroughly; the otter's head again appeared, 
 when he dived all round the fishing-ground, and 
 finally landed, and ran into the wood. Other 
 casts of this loch were more uncertain, the salmon 
 and white trout often changing their ground. 
 Here I may mention a rather unaccountable fact 
 long noted by me viz., that a cast of a loch or a 
 pool in a river will sometimes prove excellent for 
 a whole season, and during the next scarcely 
 afford a rise, yet no outward alteration can be 
 detected either in the loch cast or river pool. 
 
 The size and colour of salmon-flies do not vary 
 nearly so much in lochs as in rivers. One reason 
 no doubt is, that there are fewer changes in a 
 loch ; another, that the loch season is generally 
 shorter. I have often found red palmers, or a red 
 body with blae wing, very acceptable to salmon 
 in small lochs ; in large lochs a green body and 
 darker wing is a killing fly ; but every tolerable 
 fisherman ought to be able to find out the fly of 
 the water he frequents ; and if a stranger, he must 
 trust a good deal to his fishing guide. There is 
 often a loch-fly, which, take the season from end
 
 78 LOCH SALMON -FISHING. 
 
 to end, you kill most heavy fish with ; and yet 
 there are many whole days in the same year 
 when that fly will be rejected for another very 
 unlike it. Neither is it a necessary consequence 
 that the most killing fly of one year should be 
 also the most successful of the next. On the 
 contrary, I have experienced a complete change 
 in the favoured fly of the season, not only in 
 lochs, but in rivers. 
 
 The most deadly fly of the river Falloch altered 
 every season of the three years I rented it ; and 
 although a large minnow was eagerly dashed at, 
 both by white trout and heavy- loch ones which 
 ascended from Loch Lomond, yet I invariably 
 fixed all the largest sea-trout with fly and the 
 lightest tackle I dared risk. A grilse-rod and the 
 finest gut made a Falloch trout of from 4 to 7 
 pounds a good substitute for a 15 or 20-pound 
 salmon with ordinary tackle. The best Falloch 
 run I had was with a 4^-pounder hooked by the 
 belly fin. I had almost to swim before landing 
 him.* 
 
 * In the autumn of 1863, my last season on the Falloch, I 
 landed twenty trout of an aggregate weight of sixty pounds.
 
 LOCH SALMON -FISHING. 79 
 
 The heaviest Falloch sea-trout taken by me were 
 from 5 to upwards of 7 Ib. ; but I have frequently 
 captured them in Loch Baa from 9 to 12 Ib. Like 
 salmon, none of these Loch Baa monsters ever 
 ascended the feeding burns, although in autumn 
 one stream near the top of the loch was full of sea- 
 trout from 1 to 3 Ib. weight. My son, then a lad, 
 used to row over to this mountain brook, and sel- 
 dom returned without several of those white trout, 
 besides a large basket of yellow. His last take 
 was five sea-trout from 1| to 3 Ib., and seven 
 dozen burn ones. He always fished with worm, 
 and chose a day when the burn was quite dwin- 
 dled. In such small water as this there was no 
 need of a reel, but the gut required to be nearly 
 as fine as horse-hair. As in burn-trout bait-fishing, 
 he always threw up-stream, seldom, however, mov- 
 ing a sea -trout where the burn ones bit freely. 
 These pigmies are obliged to keep their distance 
 from the leviathans that invade them in autumn,. 
 Each sea-trout then chooses a pool, and preys 
 easily and greedily in such clear confined water on 
 the burn-trout fry, driving away those too large 
 for food, in order to prevent them from sharing in
 
 80 LOCH SALMON -FISHING. 
 
 the worms, slugs, &c., carried down the current. 
 The little burn-trout are therefore compelled by 
 fear, and the bigger ones by force, to desert the 
 quarters of a dangerous and selfish usurper. 
 
 In loch-fishing, I have constantly observed that 
 too much wind spoils sport more than too little, 
 always excepting a dead calm. Salmon and white 
 trout, however, will bear a stiffer gale than the 
 yellow, at least if your boatman is expert at the 
 oars, and perfectly knows the fishing-ground. If 
 not, never take him out in a rough day, when you 
 will find it impossible to make him obey your 
 directions. A really efficient boatman is about as 
 great a comfort as a thoroughly-trained retriever, 
 and both contribute in no slight degree to the day's 
 success. You may very soon teach for a fishing 
 boatman an active and intelligent lad, but his first 
 lessons should always be learned in a calm.
 
 SEAL-SHOOTING. 
 
 " No man," says the old Highlander, " has any 
 right to a hunter's badge who has not killed a red- 
 deer, an eagle, a salmon, and a seal." Some also 
 include the wild swan ; but this last test of High- 
 land sportsmanship seems scarcely fair, as the 
 hooper is a cosmopolitan bird of passage, frequent- 
 ing in hard winters most of the undisturbed pieces 
 of water in the United Kingdom. Although the 
 lonely moor lochan is a favourite resort both of 
 Bewick's and the common wild swan, there are 
 also large tracts among our wildest mountain dis- 
 tricts where they are never seen, or even heard of. 
 I should, therefore, be inclined to reckon the 
 hooper as a more correct criterion of skill in an 
 F
 
 82 SEAL -SHOOTING. 
 
 English fenman with mud boots and tarpaulins, 
 than of a brogued and kilted Gael. 
 
 The killing of red-deer and salmon has been of 
 late years so simplified by preservation, -and by 
 artificial modes of sporting, that even the Cockney 
 who possesses the talisman (money) will very soon 
 be made free both of the forest and the river. 
 What would the ancient Hillman have thought 
 of forests where the deer were nearly as tame as 
 sheep, and so numerous as to be dwarfed both in 
 size and antlers? With what contempt would 
 he have growled his guttural at the sunk fences of 
 the forest, and the boat-fishing of the Tay and the 
 Tweed, when the pools and streams are so crowded 
 with spring or autumn fish that the veriest green- 
 horn could not escape hooking them ! 
 
 This may be called the luxury of sport, but it 
 is not the pleasure of it, for certainly our best 
 pleasures must all be worked for and earned ; 
 at all events, these lazy and luxurious modes of 
 deer and salmon murder were never contemplated 
 by the Celt, who, in granting his diploma to a 
 mountain hunter, deemed a single head of the 
 famous four quite sufficient to entitle him to it.
 
 SEAL -SHOOTING. 83 
 
 Preserving, the chief means of bringing down 
 to the level of almost any aspirant two of the 
 four exploits required for a hunting degree, has, 
 by driving it into remote fastnesses, made a 
 third viz., the death of an eagle tolerably diffi- 
 cult to compass. As to the last on the list, the 
 seal, let any one try to bag one under the most 
 favourable auspices, and he may find the task 
 less easy than it appears. I say " bag one " in 
 place of shoot one, for most parties who have 
 made the attempt with their rifles assure you 
 they have been the death of many seals. On 
 pressing the point, you are informed that they 
 all sank on receiving the fatal bullet, and the 
 defunct monsters are rotting under the waves. 
 
 For my own part except those struck through 
 the body on land I have little faith in the death 
 of seals thus suddenly submerged. When hit on 
 land, if the shot is not a header, they are very- 
 likely to flounder into the sea and sink in deep 
 water before you can possibly get hold of or 
 trace them. But all swimming seals, if hit at 
 all, are shot through the head, and immediately 
 spread out on the surface, giving ample time to
 
 84 SEAL -SHOOTING. 
 
 row up and seize a flipper. When the shooter 
 has no boat, and does not possess the alternative 
 of a large retriever dog, he should never fire at 
 seals unless in places where, if killed, they can 
 be recovered when the tide ebbs. 
 
 The sight of seals is not quick, but their other 
 senses of scent and hearing are most a*cute. In 
 stalking, either from land or water, they are more 
 difficult of approach than deer ; and in a calm 
 day the creak or splash of an oar instantly puts 
 the basking shoal on their guard, when they roll 
 helter-skelter into the brine. As they can wind 
 you at a mile's distance, coming on them to wind- 
 ward is out of the question ; for on the scent 
 warning that the enemy is dangerously near, they 
 shuffle from the rocks into the safety of the 
 deep. Although long aware of threatened danger, 
 they are often too lethargic to fly until it really 
 becomes imminent, but this laziness never tempts 
 them to be so foolhardy as to risk their life. 
 
 A dead calm is, of course, best for seal-shooting 
 from a boat, but a favourable breeze is an advan- 
 tage, should the shoal be sunning themselves on 
 the rocks ; in which case, when afloat, always try
 
 SEAL -SHOOTING. 85 
 
 to land and stalk from the shore. If from the 
 direction of the wind or other obstacles this is 
 impracticable, the shore chance from a boat is 
 frequently an indifferent one, but the shot at the 
 head when they come up after the first dive is 
 almost certain to be point-blank. 
 
 A boat for seals should be light, and draw as 
 little water as possible. For this purpose, and to 
 prevent rocking, the build must be broad, short, 
 and flat. Frequently you have to pole through 
 shallows only a few inches deep, while now and 
 then dragging your shallop over an isthmus may 
 be the only means of securing an excellent chance. 
 As dead seals always lie on their backs at the 
 bottom, the white bellies may be seen at consider- 
 able depth. A strong cord with very large hooks 
 and lead attached is, therefore, a most useful ap- 
 pendage to fish them up. 
 
 The monster ocean seals were rare in Loch-na- 
 Gaul, but I have detected one or two about the 
 entrance of the loch, always, however, shy of trust- 
 ing themselves within bullet-range, and shunning 
 the parts of the coast or the rocks where they 
 might possibly be surprised. In the outer He-
 
 86 SEAL -SHOOTING. 
 
 brides these prodigious creatures are tame enough, 
 and roam along the shores, the tyrants of these 
 wild seas. I saw the skin of one, shot off the 
 Colonsay coast by a nephew of the Lord Justice- 
 General, which weighed 30 stone. It unexpectedly 
 elevated half its body out of water, close to the 
 young sportsman, when he shot it through the 
 lungs. 
 
 One fine September day, when walking with a 
 friend on the south shore of Loch-na-Gaul, four- 
 teen Arctic seals came racing past close to land. 
 They jumped and gambolled over each other like 
 boys at leap-frog, making a splash in the sea that 
 gave notice of their advent a good way off. After 
 coursing some distance in this boisterous style 
 they settled on a rock, and by stalking we got 
 within rifle-range ; but not having a rifle, we were 
 fain to content ourselves with a survey through 
 the telescope the first and last I ever had of 
 these rare visitors from the Polar seas. 
 
 Even a quick eye requires practice ere it be- 
 comes expert at distinguishing basking seals on 
 the rocks. They are so like tufts of seaware or 
 detached stones, both in shape and colour, that the
 
 SEAL -SHOOTING. 87 
 
 uninitiated may have a dozen ranged at no great 
 distance, yet never perceive one. The smallest 
 suspicious object, however, at once arrests the at- 
 tention of an experienced seal-shooter, and he in- 
 stantly fixes the glass to watch for a curve of the 
 tail or a bend of the head. Like wildfowl and 
 deer, when you detect the prey before you are 
 yourself perceived, success is half attained ; but 
 this far sight and keenness of eye can only be 
 arrived at by long use, and is one of the brightest 
 feathers of the hunter's cap. 
 
 A reef of rocks near the head of Loch-na-Gaul, 
 although completely submerged at high tide, begins 
 to show itself at quarter ebb, and at low water 
 they expand into considerable islets. This group 
 is the favourite drying ground of seals in summer, 
 and the nursery where they rear their young. 
 Every calm, hot day, when the islets are left bare 
 and quiet, the large heads of the female seals, each 
 followed by a little head, oftener by a pair no 
 bigger than cricket-balls, float about the tiny bays, 
 while the old males sun themselves luxuriously on 
 the shelving rocks. Whenever this dry sunny 
 weather prevented salmon-fishing in Loch Baa, the
 
 88 SEAL -SHOOTING. 
 
 coble was carted from the fresh to the salt water 
 loch, and seals substituted for salmon. 
 
 After a sultry fortnight to wards the end of June, 
 I noted with the telescope a flock of seals ranged 
 like sheep along the centre rock of the group. A 
 short time before, a new (Henry) rifle had been 
 forwarded ; what an opportunity to handsel it ! 
 The boatman was summoned, the rifle unpacked 
 and loaded, without even a pluff of powder to spoil 
 Mr Henry's " luck." A high rock of the nearest 
 islet, where I landed, screened us from the herd, 
 but they were beyond rifle-range, and no possibi- 
 lity of a closer approach. My tactics were soon 
 fixed. Taking post under a rock close to the sea, 
 I made the man unmuffle the oars, and, keeping 
 out of view, to pull away with as much noise and 
 bustle as he could. The success of this manoeuvre 
 depended entirely on rousing the inquisitiveness 
 of the sleepers. No sooner was the sound of the 
 oars heard so near than the whole troop wriggled 
 into the water, and two of the largest sailed past 
 my rock at 80 yards' distance, peering curiously 
 round for a sight of the boat. Selecting the mo- 
 ment when his poll was my target, I fired, and
 
 SEAL -SHOOTING. 89 
 
 one of the monsters lay stretched on the sea. My 
 second barrel was ready for his companion, which 
 of course had dived, but his curiosity being satis- 
 fied, he never reappeared. The boatman obeyed 
 my signal at his utmost speed, and all but upset 
 the coble in dragging the seal on board. It was a 
 male, and weighed 9 stone. 
 
 The weather continuing calm and warm, the 
 same shoal a few days after settled on one of the 
 further rocks, but the look-out was too open to 
 permit our cheating -them again, so there was no- 
 thing to be done but raise the long sight. I fired 
 at three in line, and must have hit a pair of them, 
 for we traced two tracks of blood to the sea, enter- 
 ing it from opposite sides of the rock. The sur- 
 face was also covered with their fur, but the water 
 was far too deep to allow any hope of detecting 
 them at the bottom if dead. 
 
 The seals were now getting shy of these rocks, 
 but a burning day again enticed them to try a 
 siesta ; this time, however, they cunningly chose 
 a bare exposure, all but safe from surprise. On 
 taking a survey with the telescope from the main- 
 land, I arranged a plan by which we had a pros-
 
 90 SEAL -SHOOTING. 
 
 pect of getting within 150 yards, but the operation 
 was both difficult and tedious. By landing on 
 the outermost islet, and carrying the coble right 
 across into a creek dividing the first from the 
 second reef of rocks, we could pole down to the 
 shelter of a large stone, which might enable the 
 stalker, by a wet crawl among the seaweed, to 
 reach the distance I had calculated for a chance. 
 A crew of four was needed for the land transport 
 of our skiff, but to effect this quietly over slippery 
 rocks, although the turning-point of our strategy, 
 was its most trying part. The moist seaware 
 caused a few false steps among the rough rocks, 
 but its softness prevented these stumbles from 
 being heard by the seals, so the coble was safely 
 lodged in the creek. It was quickly pushed down 
 this latch, when I had to crawl fiat a little way 
 among shingle and seaweed in order to reach the 
 nearest point for the shot. 
 
 After carefully noting the postures of the unsus- 
 picious but scattered flock, being unable to get two 
 in line, I put up the 150-yard sight and selected 
 one of the nearest. Instantly I saw and heard the 
 ball strike my mark true to the aim. Its com-
 
 SEAL -SHOOTING. 91 
 
 panions dashed into the sea, but the wounded seal 
 rolled about on the sand, and then struggled after 
 them. When in the water, in place of only the 
 head, the whole disabled shoulder rose above the 
 surface, and the dives were short and laborious. 
 My boatmen, making sure of their prize, pulled 
 with all their might, but in mid career an oar 
 snapped, and there was no spare one. With the 
 stump of the oar they followed the path of blood, 
 and every time the creature came to the top for air 
 the sea was dyed red all round. Had I and my 
 rifle been aboard I could with the greatest ease 
 have sent a ball through its head before the air 
 supply was pumped out by the death-struggle, 
 when it would have floated till we pulled up. 
 Even with a pair of whole oars there was every 
 likelihood of getting hold of the prey alive, but by 
 lamely following it with an oar stump the creature 
 bravely fought on till it died, and then, quite 
 empty of buoyant air, disappeared at once in deep 
 water. For the truthfulness of my narrative I 
 have entered into these details, but must acknow- 
 ledge that such casualties in seal-shooting fully 
 counterbalance its pleasures.
 
 92 SEAL -SHOOTING. 
 
 The reaching of them when they felt so secure, 
 and the smell of their comrades' blood, made the 
 phoca troop shy of their rocks for some time. 
 Before they again dared risk the pleasure of a 
 bask, copious rain enticed us back to Loch Baa 
 and the salmon, and it was the beginning of 
 August ere I had another opportunity at seals. 
 
 The Garmony farmer had complained of a deer 
 injuring his ripening crops, so to please him we 
 came over to Scalastal for a range of Garmony 
 wood. After an early breakfast the shepherds and 
 dogs were sent forward to the further end of the 
 covert, and I was loading my rifle and about to 
 follow, when one of them ran back to tell us that 
 a seal was resting on a submerged stone in the 
 sound, opposite the farm gate. He had detained 
 the deer hunt until he knew whether the rival 
 claimant for the contents of my rifle would be first 
 honoured. My son and the grieve went to recon- 
 noitre, and reported that the seal was more than 
 200 yards from the gate. The stone was some 3 
 feet under water, and the creature, by resting its 
 hind flippers on this platform, was standing up- 
 right in the sea, the head presenting even less of
 
 SEAL -SHOOTING. 93 
 
 a mark than if the seal had been actually swim- 
 ming. It was impossible to get closer than the 
 gate, which, however, gave the advantage of a fine 
 rest. 
 
 I always like shooting ball at objects in water, 
 as a man is at once aware what kind of shot he 
 has made. In this instance I did not expect to hit, 
 but determined in the face of four witnesses to go 
 as near as possible to my aim. I never fired with 
 more deliberate calculation, but own I was nearly 
 as surprised as the onlookers when the animal 
 stretched on the surface dead. There was a rush 
 by the two fleetest of our party for the rickety 
 skiff, but long ere it was possible to pull round, I 
 had the mortification to see my prize turn on its 
 back and sink. I directed the rowers to the very 
 spot, but although there were two pairs of as sharp 
 eyes as ever scanned the deep, they could see 
 nothing white at the bottom. On coming into the 
 skiff I at once perceived that there was no possi- 
 bility of detecting the object of our search, except 
 at the lowest ebb of the tide. 
 
 Our interrupted deer-hunt was again resumed, 
 but there being neither hoof nor horn to delay us
 
 94 SEAL -SHOOTING. 
 
 in Garmony wood, we had plenty time to be at the 
 seal again by the turn of the tide. After launch- 
 ing the skiff and placing a shepherd to direct our 
 course from the shore, my son, the grieve, and I 
 endeavoured to find the resting-stone, now con- 
 founded with several others ; but an unfortunate 
 breeze so obscured and hindered the search, that 
 we had gone round and over the white mark three 
 times before my son called out, " I see him." With 
 difficulty backing the boat so as to keep sight of 
 the creature for the few seconds required to cast 
 off my coat and shoes, I plunged into the sea, and 
 at the first dive caught hold of the hind flippers 
 and raised it to the boat-side. Had we been pro- 
 vided with our seal-grappling apparatus (left at 
 Glenforsa), from the roughness of the water and 
 the strength of the wind, the task would have 
 been both more lengthy and precarious. This seal 
 was a female between 7 and 8 stones weight. 
 
 Late in the season, when the colder days had 
 thinned the Loch-na-Gaul rocks of their flounder- 
 ing visitants, my eldest son, who had been absent 
 all the seal season, and was anxious to bag one, 
 had the fishing-coble again transplanted for a day
 
 SEAL -SHOOTING. 95 
 
 or two from Loch Baa to the salt water. He took 
 post on one of the islets, and in orthodox style, 
 Hythe position, hit his game fair through the 
 head, swimming fully 100 yards off. This seal, 
 however, did not require either a dive or the grap- 
 pling-hooks, as I managed to get hold of and drag 
 it into the skiff before it settled and sank.
 
 NATURAL HISTOKY AND SPORT OF BUTE. 
 
 A RATHER curious speculation has sometimes 
 amused me. Had rare old Gilbert White been 
 a sportsman instead of a naturalist only, and had 
 he rented grouse muirs, should we have gained or 
 lost most by his metamorphosis ? No doubt ' Sel- 
 borne,' the most charming and classic of sketches, 
 might have been less perfectly filled up ; but, on 
 the other hand, if the keen and philosophic eye of 
 this magic painter caught but a passing glimpse 
 of what hundreds regard no more than the " idle 
 wind," what curious theories might have been 
 started, and in what beautiful language would they 
 have been handed down ! 
 
 Power of pitching his tent in the remote wilds, 
 and of removing it as his fancy may prompt, is
 
 NATURAL HISTORY AND SPORT OF BUTE. 97 
 
 the great boon given to the sportsman-naturalist 
 by the present universal system of leasing shoot- 
 ing-ground. A goodly number of our keenest and 
 best sportsmen are naturalists also, and when to 
 this accomplishment is added an enthusiastic love 
 of scenery, their enjoyments are greatly enhanced. 
 For the last thirty-two years I have been one of 
 these autumnal wanderers, and rented shootings 
 not only in the north, south, east, and west of 
 Scotland, but also in the islands, thus having the 
 opportunity of comparing different districts of the 
 country, and noting, by the effects of climate, &c., 
 on its various fauna, the slight causes which 
 often diverge into wide results. 
 
 My present abode, the romantic old Castle of 
 Kames in Bute, has supplied me with a fresh field 
 of amusement and research in the study of that 
 island, chiefly by noticing the absence of birds and 
 creatures familiar enough in many of my other 
 quarters, or the presence of some rarely met with 
 in rougher districts, but tempted to a summer 
 sojourn in this genial clime. 
 
 One of my last shooting quarters being in Mull, 
 a comparison of the two islands was a natural and 
 G
 
 98 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 interesting subject of thought ; for, although both 
 were situated on the west coast, and flanked by 
 mainland mountains which wooed the Atlantic 
 mists, there was yet a very perceptible difference 
 of climate, which the zoology of the islands quite 
 bears out. 
 
 To begin with the lowest order of animal life, 
 I was much surprised never to have encountered 
 one adder in Bute either last summer or this. In 
 Mull these reptiles perfectly swarm ; and during 
 the dog-days I have counted half-a-dozen in the 
 course of a single forenoon. They seem to thrive 
 as well as multiply many which I stumbled on 
 along the shores of Loch Baa being of immense 
 size. One of these monsters took possession of a 
 dry drain flanked by a stone dyke close to Glen- 
 forsa House. It had been attacked several times, 
 but always contrived to glide into the wall. If 
 the day was warm and sunny, there was the adder 
 on the bank ; but it became so wary, after being 
 occasionally pelted with stones, that on hearing 
 the lightest step it slipped out of sight like magic. 
 I desired my people, by taking a circuit, not to 
 disturb it for a few days, and on a sultry morning
 
 SPORT OF BUTE. 99 
 
 crouched noiselessly to the spot. The creature 
 was coiled up asleep, but the moment I raised 
 my stick it darted for the wall. I struck just as 
 its head entered the hole and stunned it. "When 
 carrying it home alive by the tail, it disgorged a 
 full-grown field-mouse. On telling some neigh- 
 bours what a capacious gorge this adder had, they 
 capped him with another killed on the opposite 
 coast of Morven the year before, of most prodi- 
 gious length and girth, and in its belly was a full- 
 grown rat ! As I could not at first swallow the rat 
 myself, I took the trouble to verify, as far as testi- 
 mony could verify, the gluttonous feat of this 
 python, and found I had been correctly informed. 
 A still more incredible story of a Mull adder I 
 give on my own authority. The reptile was bask- 
 ing close to a wall, when my son's tutor (now 
 minister of Kirkliston) threw a large stone, and 
 fairly halved it. The head and shoulders wriggled 
 into the wall, and he brought the tail to me. 
 Three days after he found the head half at the same 
 spot hale and hearty, and when attacked it hissed 
 and bit his stick fiercely. This adder was severed 
 about the centre, head and tail ends being of about
 
 100 NATUEAL HISTORY AND 
 
 equal length. So prolific in adders was Mull that 
 we have found them in winter coiled up in a hea- 
 ther bush, no doubt surprised and frozen to death 
 by one of those pinching night frosts which often 
 succeed the sunny butterfly-days of early winter. 
 
 The only serpent reptile I have detected in 
 Bute is the familiar slow-worm. It is by no means 
 plentiful here, although in Mull equally numerous 
 with the adders. The rough ground of North 
 Bute being well adapted to furnish food and 
 shelter for reptiles, and the climate to foster 
 them, why there are no adders and few blind- 
 worms I do not pretend to guess. 
 
 The stoat abounds in Bute quite as much as in 
 Mull, but the common weasel I have never seen 
 but once.* A party of us surrounded and killed 
 the creature last January, where it had taken 
 refuge under a bush. It proved to be a beauti- 
 ful example of the "cane" or " mousekiller," con- 
 sidered a distinct species by many English game- 
 keepers. My own impression is that these 
 mousekillers are only the young of the common 
 
 * Since writing the above I have twice detected full-grown 
 specimens of the common weasel in Bute.
 
 SPORT OF BUTE. 101 
 
 weasel, although some naturalists are inclined to 
 accord them the third class of our native weasels. 
 My tiny specimen is of course preserved as proof 
 that there are at least canes in Bute ! Never 
 during the term of years I spent in Mull could I 
 detect a single instance of the common weasel ; 
 and from inquiries I made in Skye, I am of 
 opinion that they are extinct there also. 
 
 The larger footed vermin, such as foxes, wild- 
 cats, martins, and (I think) foumarts, have most 
 likely never been introduced into this island, or, 
 if any of them were formerly indigenous, they 
 have been extirpated. Hedgehogs, however, are 
 far from rare, and my watcher trapped a brace of 
 them last spring at the same egg set for hoody- 
 crows. The first escaped, minus a foot, which 
 the man assured me had been the property of a 
 rat of such gigantic dimensions, that no cat in 
 Bute would be foolhardy enough to face him in 
 single combat. As if to solve the mystery, and 
 put a damper on his wonder and curiosity, next 
 night the other hedgehog was taken. These 
 prickly swine do great damage to all ground 
 nests of eggs within their sluggish beat.
 
 102 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 None of the grander birds of prey breed in 
 Bute. The sea eagle sometimes rests for a day or 
 two when wandering south, or returning to her 
 mountains again from a winter migration. I 
 have, however, never seen a single instance of 
 the peregrine falcon, the hen harrier,* the golden 
 eagle, or the buzzard, all of which were far from 
 uncommon in Mull. Until lately ravens used 
 annually to hatch on the precipices of North 
 Bute, but for the last four years they have de- 
 serted their rocks. Still, on the evening of an 
 autumn or winter shooting-day, I am often warn- 
 ed by an iron croak from the clouds that the 
 corbie was scenting the carrion, and, followed by 
 her young ones, had swooped across the Kyles 
 from the shaggy mountains of Cowal, to feast 
 them in security on the island prey. 
 
 Of the accipitres, the only species I have veri- 
 fied in Bute are the sparrow-hawk and kestrel. 
 Once or twice I noticed in the distance what 
 might have been a female merlin; but as there 
 
 * Last autumn I perceived a female hen harrier or ringtail 
 skirting the shore of the Kyles, but it soon flew across to 
 Argyllshire.
 
 SPOKT OF BUTE. 103 
 
 have been no nests of that tiny falcon found on my 
 heathery braes, the bird most likely was a male 
 sparrow-hawk. Three of their nests were found by 
 my watcher last spring, all fixed in stunted trees, 
 the spontaneous growth of " dells without a name/' 
 in the inidst of my best partridge breeding ground. 
 We trapped the old male and female of two of 
 these nests, and actually caught the third pair; 
 but the female escaped by accidentally dropping a 
 thrush she was feeding the young with between 
 the jaws of the trap, which prevented them from 
 holding, while the trap that caught the male un- 
 fortunately had a weak spring. After this warn- 
 ing, neither of course would return. 
 
 It is well understood by preservers of game 
 that one hoody-crow, or even magpie, will destroy 
 more grouse in the egg than a dozen eagles will 
 do when they are fully fledged. On Kames and 
 North Bute there were certainly far fewer black, 
 but especially grey crows, than are generally met 
 with on the west coast islands. We only dis- 
 covered four nests this season, built as usual on 
 the top boughs of tall trees, or on the stumps of 
 bushes growing out of the face of a beetling cliff.
 
 104 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 We trapped or poisoned the old couples of all the 
 nests but one, placed far down in an inaccessible 
 precipice. Two of these pairs were royston and 
 carrion crows breeding together. In both cases 
 the females were black, and the males grey. 
 They had built in fir and oak trees, but the two 
 couple which had nestled in the cliffs overhanging 
 the sea were all grey roystons. 
 
 The number of magpies was so prodigious in 
 North Bute that I often wondered how any low- 
 land winged game had been raised at all. With 
 trap and poison we massacred eighteen couple of 
 old birds, each pair having a nest full of eggs or 
 young ! Jesse, in his ' Gleanings/ mentions a 
 knowing bird-dealer, who affirmed that there were 
 two species of magpie. The smaller kind, which he 
 termed " the bush magpie," always built in bushes 
 or hedgerows, while the larger ones chose the tops 
 of high slender trees. By far the greater propor- 
 tion of those destroyed by me last spring had 
 their nests in low scrubby bushes among the 
 thick cover of North Bute. The Kames magpies, 
 however, all built on the tops of high larches or 
 firs. There was no perceptible difference in size
 
 SPORT OF BUTE. 105 
 
 of the old birds of the two districts ; and it ap- 
 peared evident that the reason why those at 
 Kames were so aspiring in the situation of their 
 high-roofed nurseries, was the absence of cover to 
 conceal them ; and by far the greater proportion 
 of these sly birds put more trust in their own 
 well-known hidling powers among the thickets 
 of North Bute, than in the pinnacle of the most 
 tall and dizzy fortress that nature ever reared. 
 
 It is now thirty-seven years since the secret of 
 trapping flying vermin, by removing their young 
 from the nest and using them as decoys, was first 
 found out by myself and my late father's game- 
 keeper. The day of our discovery rises clearly to 
 my mind's eye from beyond the deepening mists 
 of these long years ; and somewhat gloomily too, 
 for on that very day I was the means of expelling 
 from the loch of my ancestors the most romantic 
 and time-honoured dependant on its bounty. 
 
 Having arranged a vermin crusade with the 
 keeper among the islands of Loch Lomond, the 
 ospreys, who had just repaired their yearly nest 
 on the ivied castle of Galbreath, were unfortun- 
 ately too tempting sport for a thoughtless youth
 
 106 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 and a destructive gamekeeper. My first exploit, 
 after being concealed on the islet, was to shoot 
 the female, while my ally, selecting the trustiest of 
 his " stamps," fixed a sea-trout found in the eyrie 
 on the plate, and set the trap. We then rowed to 
 the adjacent twin islands, forming " the straights" 
 of Loch Lomond, where no less than four couple 
 of vindictive carrion crows had each a nest of 
 " hopefuls," within a few days of beginning their 
 apprenticeship to the nefarious trade of the family. 
 It was of no use to watch four nests for the chance 
 of shooting the old crows, but a smart thought 
 struck us Why should we not use the young as 
 bait in the circle of twigs ? Immediately the four 
 nests were emptied into twig-circles at the foot of 
 their respective trees, and the traps set. 
 
 On our return the same evening, the poor os- 
 prey widower was fast in his trap, and next 
 morning the female " hoody " of all four nests 
 was in the same predicament. The traps were 
 reset, and the " he-ones" of two of the nests taken; 
 but the other pair of males had been so scared at 
 the plight of their struggling mates, as to allow 
 the young to perish rather than venture to feed
 
 SPORT OF BUTE. 107 
 
 them. To obviate this, I have lately adopted the 
 plan of setting two circles of twigs, out of sight of 
 each other, and putting half the young in one 
 circle and half in the other. Should an old bird 
 be trapped, I change the young to a fresh circle 
 of boughs a little way off. The surviving old bird 
 will readily come to the fresh-set circle, although 
 nothing would induce it to risk itself where it 
 saw its helpmate so mysteriously in grief. I have 
 in contemplation a trap for winged vermin which 
 will quite supersede the iron one and circle of 
 twigs. If my plan matures, from its open ap- 
 pearance, the most shy birds will venture on this 
 trap ; and when they do, escape is impossible. 
 
 The familiar kestrel is equally well distributed 
 in Bute as on the mainland. Distinct in manners 
 and habits from, both the falcons and hawks, this 
 bird is no less perfectly endowed for the part 
 assigned to it by Nature's law. Anchored in the 
 air by that power of wing peculiar to this day owl, 
 it plies the trade of mouse-hunting alike on the 
 heathery hill or the cultivated field. Mice being 
 most rife in the dusk, the kestrel is the latest 
 hunter of the hawks, and is of course gifted with
 
 108 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 a larger eye to collect the last rays of failing light. 
 Although they have no objection to birds, when 
 they can catch them, and prowl all day to provide 
 for their nestlings, I consider kestrels less hurtful 
 to game than the ivy owl which flies entirely by 
 night, and my opinion is borne out by the feeding 
 hoards of both when they have young. It is a 
 fact that kestrels have far less difficulty in provid- 
 ing their nestlings with a constant supply of field- 
 mice than the brown owl has ; and this is accounted 
 for by the kestrel's power of wing, which enables 
 her to keep the air with the same ease as those 
 buoyant owls which live exclusively on mice. 
 The last summer I fished Loch Baa a pair of these 
 birds were rearing their young close to " the Sal- 
 mon Point." Every time I fished the point the 
 hawks flew round screaming, while I assured my 
 oarsman (a poacher from Salen) that they did no 
 harm to game, and much good to the farmer. The 
 man could scarcely conceal a sneer, until one after- 
 noon the screamer dashed out of the wood, within 
 a few yards of our heads, with a large field-mouse 
 dangling in its claws. " I see'd its tail an' legs as 
 plain as the boat," he repeated again and again.
 
 SPORT OF BUTE. 10.9 
 
 I knew of four kestrels' nests on my Bute 
 shootings last spring, most picturesquely placed 
 on lonely points of rock, but did not permit any 
 of them to be molested, with the exception of 
 a young one, which my boys reared along with 
 a sparrow-hawk of the same age. They never 
 quarrelled, got into fine feather about the end 
 of July, and seemed quite contented in their 
 enormous cage. The kestrel once escaped, and 
 flew about the old trees and tower in a restless 
 unhappy manner, and seemed delighted when it 
 found the way back to captivity, not unlike those 
 inhabitants of the city suburb, who have learned 
 to prefer their close den to the wildest freedom. 
 
 I am sorry to bring a case of poaching against 
 the respectable and industrious rook ; but in dry- 
 seasons, when the parched ground refuses the 
 usual supply of slugs and worms, these birds are 
 very destructive among the eggs of the pheasant 
 or partridge preserve. The charge of devouring 
 young birds has never, so far as my research goes, 
 been brought home to rooks, although members 
 of the same order, but partners in a smaller firm, 
 have been convicted of kidnapping and murder-
 
 110 NATUKAL HISTOKY AND 
 
 ing pheasants a few days old. Two pairs of jack- 
 daws, after a long drought, were shot in the act 
 of picking up pheasants from the coops as soon 
 as they were hatched, to satisfy the craving of 
 their voracious families. I am convinced, how- 
 ever, that these evil deeds are exceptional, and 
 that almost any bird, as well as omnivorous crows, 
 when deprived of its favourite food, can subsist 
 and even thrive on what it likes far less, and 
 would indeed otherwise reject. 
 
 An appropriate rookery surrounds the old castle 
 here, and to watch the order and discretion of the 
 sable colony when superintending the education 
 of their respective families was a favourite pas- 
 time of mine all last spring. From the time they 
 emerge from the wicker nursery, and are pro- 
 moted to the schoolroom as " branchers," the 
 system of rook instruction begins. They are 
 taught to use a convenient bough always above 
 the nest, and the parents, in bringing food, ap- 
 proach the nest-tree where they can, be first dis- 
 cerned from this look-out twig. At first, when 
 fed, the perchers were apt to plump down into 
 the nest ; but soon becoming stronger, they hopped
 
 SPORT OF BUTE. Ill 
 
 and fluttered from spray to spray, but always 
 above the sheltering nest, and ready to drop into 
 it at the warning caw of the old ones. The flap- 
 ping wings and eager calls of the young often 
 warned me that the parents were approaching 
 long before I saw them myself, and I was often 
 amazed at the intuition of the different young 
 broods in detecting the approach of their own 
 father or mother among the black multitude 
 hovering and cawing in the air. The branchers 
 were not encouraged to take an adventurous flight 
 to the adjacent tree until quite strong and fully 
 fledged ; after this they soon learned to follow the 
 flock to the adjoining feeding grounds. 
 
 From their cheerful social habits inviting ob- 
 servation and study, rooks and the interior eco- 
 nomy of their commonwealth have furnished 
 matter for many curious tales. I give the follow- 
 ing instance, which only took place in the year 
 1863 : There had been for years a rook's nest on 
 a tree in the back garden of a house in Moray 
 Place. During the winter of 1863 a large com- 
 pany of rooks pulled it quite down. The follow- 
 ing spring a pair rebuilt the nest, laid eggs, and
 
 112 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 began to sit. An immense troop of their black 
 kindred soon surrounded them, killed the male, 
 who fell into the area, slew the female on her 
 eggs, tore off one of her wings, and all the pirates 
 disappeared as suddenly as they came, and never 
 revisited the place except, indeed, one solitary 
 spy, which flew round and round the house the 
 morning after the massacre, making a great noise. 
 The butler picked up the slain rook and the fe- 
 male's wing, while the family watched with wonder 
 the storming of the nest and the double murder. 
 
 A gentleman living in Newbattle Terrace, at 
 the south side of Edinburgh, told me a curious 
 rook anecdote that happened last spring. Being 
 unwilling to allow a colony from a neighbouring 
 rook settlement to take possession of the old trees 
 around his house, he shot the female of the first 
 couple that built a nest on them. The widower 
 paired again directly, and brought the new mate 
 to the same house, when she shared the fate of the 
 first. The determined settler immediately took to 
 himself a third partner, and installed her into 
 the fatal lodging. After her death the rooks 
 assembled in a body, and tore down the nest.
 
 SPOET OF BUTE. 113 
 
 My authority for these facts is unimpeachable, 
 and at the service of any one who- thinks it worth 
 while to demand it. 
 
 It may be from their uniform black inviting 
 attention, but no birds show the Albino stain 
 more frequently than blackbirds or rooks. I have 
 seen these opposite " extremes " of colour " meet " 
 in the rook almost every season. I shot a young 
 one in the rookery here with a white bill, another 
 with white nails to its toes ; a third had white 
 wings, the most common phase of this lusus na- 
 turae. The contradiction of a whole nest of white 
 blackbirds, and another of white rooks, in both cases 
 the parents being black, was the most unaccount- 
 able freak that nature could possibly play.* 
 
 * A notice of a white sparrow in the ' Scotsman' gave rise 
 to this reply : 
 
 " WHITE SPARROWS. 
 
 " KAMES CASTLE, Oct. 10, 1865. 
 
 "Sm, The white sparrow of Leith Walk is not the rara 
 avis the correspondents of the ' Scotsman ' suppose. 
 
 " I have one in my collection at 1 Royal Terrace, shot by 
 my son in the barrack square of Dundalk. In the same case 
 is another with white wings, shot by myself at a farm-stead- 
 ing near Joppa. Another buff sparrow haunts the village of 
 Port-Bannatyne, close to this place. Another white-winged 
 H
 
 114 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 When the month of December is mild, rooks 
 build, thrushes sing, blackcocks croon, wood- 
 pigeons coo, martin swallows sometimes appear, 
 and even butterflies have been known to show 
 themselves. Editors of newspapers are often 
 bored at Christmas with accounts of some one 
 or other of these wonders, which so often occur 
 every mild winter season. 
 
 Another interesting section of the omnivora, the 
 starlings, are very numerous here. They come 
 in clouds every evening to roost on the old beeches 
 and elms, close to and even among the rooks. 
 Hidling in their nesting habits, they cannot be 
 watched so easily as rooks ; but by the common 
 mode of fixing boxes to the higher branches of a 
 tall tree, we induced two pairs to adopt a ready- 
 made home. I liked better, however, to see them 
 choose their own site among the thick ivy of the 
 garden wall, where several pairs hatch every year. 
 Of course my boys tamed one this summer, which 
 
 sparrow I see almost every day when going to shoot in the 
 north end of the island. The Port-Bannatyne bird I saw all 
 last season as well as this. I am, &c. 
 
 "JOHN COLQUHOUN. "
 
 SPORT OF BUTE. 115 
 
 has proved the most pleasant and amusing of pets. 
 It was early taught to quit its cage in the kitchen 
 and devour the flies, which were so dexterously 
 snapped up that one's eye often could not follow 
 the capture. The windows are never shut when 
 "the stare" is hunting, and it often flies round 
 the lawn for half-a-clay, but always comes back to 
 its cage before dusk. Our starling, however, is 
 not sentimental, and, if he were, has no right to 
 the plaintive plea, " I can't get out." 
 
 One feels a kind of reverence for those birds 
 whose life is spent in the silence and solemnity of 
 night; and the music in which they vent their 
 contemplations, though always in the minor key, 
 is listened to with more interest, and perhaps 
 scarcely less pleasure, than that of sunshine and 
 the day. The spectre-like ways and melancholy 
 hootings of these night-lovers please well the 
 fancy ; while the oft-repeated plaint of the wood- 
 owl, from ivied tree or mouldering tower, is an- 
 swered, perhaps, by some inner second of our own. 
 Even the wild screech of the white owl, as it flits 
 stealthily and rapidly along, has a power over us 
 peculiarly its own ; and one is amazed that so true
 
 116 NATURAL HISTOEY AND 
 
 a poet as Cowper could class the call of these hon- 
 oured sages " even beneath the harsh tones of the 
 jay, the pye, the daw." Surely he could never 
 have listened to them under the canopy of heaven, 
 but only caught the sound from his own drawing- 
 room, with all the curtains closed. 
 
 The country around this venerable castle seems 
 especially adapted to rear both white and brown 
 owls. A mixture of cultivated and waste land, 
 interspersed with woody dells, old ruins, and hol- 
 low trees, ought to have attracted them from the 
 mainland opposite coast, where they always breed ; 
 yet, though constantly watching, I have never seen 
 or heard either of the more common species,* 
 while the rarest (the short-eared owl) twice un- 
 expectedly presented herself on Kames Hill when 
 I was ranging for grouse. 
 
 About the beginning of August 1864, I was 
 examining the ground with a view to the 12th, 
 and my dogs " poked up " this owl, when she flew 
 a little distance and pitched on the top of a bing 
 
 * Some time after the above was penned, a white or barn 
 owl took possession of the garden-wall ivy the only one I 
 have seen in Bute.
 
 SPOET OF BUTE. 117 
 
 of stones capping a heathery mound. My youngest 
 son, a schoolboy, was my only companion, and of 
 course wished me to go home for a gun while he 
 watched the owl. Not having a specimen in my 
 collection, I was much tempted, but finally decid- 
 ed that, as the bird would most likely haunt the 
 place, we would always give the owl's cairn a trial 
 when grouse-shooting near it. All the early part 
 of last season I never passed the mound without 
 a close look-out; but the searches became more 
 careless each succeeding time, and at last were 
 omitted altogether. On the morning of the 4th of 
 September of the present year, thirteen months 
 after we first saw this rare bird, I was after grouse 
 with the same companion, close to " the hoolet's 
 cairn," as he called it, when of her own accord she 
 rose at some distance from us, and I shot her. It 
 was but seldom that my youngest boy was with 
 me on my shooting excursions ; and, considering 
 my many trials for the owl with one or other of 
 his brothers, that he should have been the only 
 one out the day she fell might have furnished good 
 material for a superstitious Highland legend. 
 The far more common long-eared owl I have
 
 118 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 never seen hunting here, but once or twice last 
 winter I distinctly heard its scream close to the 
 castle windows, and a few months since my gillie 
 lad brought me a half-grown one, found in a dying 
 state on the lawn. It seemed starved to death, 
 being a perfect skeleton. 
 
 I have listened both last summer and this for 
 the drowsy chur of another favourite bird of the 
 dusk, the fearless night-jar. That this migrant 
 should prefer Mull to Bute, where night-moths are 
 so plentiful, seems to me unreasonable. Not one 
 fern owl have I seen or heard on the northern dis- 
 trict of this island, while in Mull the monotonous 
 spinning-wheel note was raised each July evening 
 close to both our shooting quarters; and I have 
 preserved the finest male specimen I ever saw, 
 which I shot one 12th of August, raised from the 
 heather by my dogs. 
 
 The more obtrusive and noticeable day migrants, 
 such as the cuckoo, the landrail, and the swallow 
 tribe, seem to revel in our neighbourhood, while 
 fly-catchers and white-throats delight the eye 
 with their graceful movements among the laurel 
 bushes. From entries in my journal, I find that,
 
 SPOKT OF BUTE. 119 
 
 on the 5th of May, when we returned to our island 
 home, " Cuckoos and landrails are in full cry, 
 and chimney swallows are flying in considerable 
 numbers. Neither the window martin nor swift 
 has yet appeared. The gardener told me that he 
 first saw a swallow and heard the cuckoo on the 
 same day, the 30th of April." " Monday, 22d 
 May.* Window martins begun to build in the 
 eaves of the old tower. Saw, on the 18th, the first 
 and only pair of swifts I have noticed here this 
 season. Heard yesterday morning, at twenty-five 
 minutes past three A.M., two cuckoos, two land- 
 rails, a thrush, a sedge-warbler, and other birds, all 
 singing and calling at the same moment. The 
 landrail in the clover field, and the sedge-warbler 
 among the laurels, never cease their love-call dur- 
 ing the darkest night." " Friday, June 9th. The 
 pair of swifts attempting to take possession of the 
 same martin's nest they stormed last year." 
 
 * A daughter of the late Lord President Hope gave me the 
 following curious and interesting particulars of a swallow's 
 nest which she had often heard told by her eminent father : 
 A pair had built their nest in a corner of the Lord President's 
 window. The fabric, however, always fell, until two older 
 swallows built it for them, and then left them in possession.
 
 120 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 This season the bold attack of the swifts was 
 finally repulsed by the determined resistance of 
 the martins. From coming early last year, the 
 black pirates had little difficulty in seizing the 
 newly-made home of the industrious builders ; 
 but this time the martins fought with desperation 
 in defence of their young as well as home, so the 
 pair of swifts, after their defeat, took easy posses- 
 sion of an empty martin's nest at Kames Villa, 
 where my neighbour tells me they are bringing 
 up a thriving family. I marked the incubation 
 and daily feeding of the young swifts last year 
 until they took wing ; I then carefully watched 
 them each day till they left us for the arid plains 
 of Africa. My last entries were Monday the 1st 
 of August, Tuesday the 2d, and Wednesday the 3d, 
 after which date I saw none in Bute till my note 
 of them last May. 
 
 All birds feeding in the air live on winged in- 
 sects, and all feeders on winged insects must be 
 migrants. No better type of both visits this coun- 
 try than the bird last mentioned. It is the fleet- 
 est and strongest- winged of all British birds. For 
 ten long hours of a July day, without resting, will
 
 SPORT OF BUTE. 121 
 
 this indefatigable creature dart through the air at 
 an immense height, collecting the higher-flying in- 
 sects with its flat-shaped beak, the gape of which, as 
 in all the swallows, is admirably adapted for hoard- 
 ing the treasure. I once counted about a dozen 
 black flies in the gape of some newly-shot swifts. 
 So exclusively is this large swallow a bird of the 
 air, that it never alights except when scrambling 
 into its nest, and if placed on flat ground, from 
 the weakness of its feet and length of its wings, 
 would be unable to rise. The feet, exactly like a 
 small hand, are totally unfitted for walking, and 
 only serve the purpose of clutching the eaves of a 
 house when seeking the nesting-place. Feeding 
 higher in the air than the other swallows, their 
 insect-food fails soonest, so they come later and 
 leave earlier than any of the other swallows. 
 Three months is their usual time with us, while 
 the other three species of swallow viz., the chim- 
 ney one and the window and bank martins not 
 only come earlier, but stay two months later. 
 I saw a bank martin in the south of England on 
 the 25th of last November, and on the 5th of 
 December following another pair hawking for
 
 122 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 insects among the house-tops of Henley- on - 
 Thames. I never before remember seeing these 
 birds so late in departure. 
 
 The range of the chimney swallow and the two 
 martins comes much nearer the ground than that 
 of the swift. They often alight, and, from the 
 conformation of thdir feet and shorter wings, can 
 easily rise again. The weaker wing is made up 
 for by the stronger foot, which gives these swal- 
 lows the power of resting on house-tops, rails, or 
 even on the ground itself. 
 
 Full before my window a pair of fly-catchers 
 keep continually darting from the rails of a wood- 
 en bridge after insects on the wing. These birds 
 may be called the next in succession to swallows, 
 for although they live much on the ground they 
 find the chief of their food in the air. They 
 arrive here a little later than the swallows, and 
 depart shortly before them. 
 
 On the broad planks of the bridge grey and 
 yellow wagtails find a constant supply. These 
 graceful creatures, although occasionally catching 
 a fly in the air, keep almost constantly on the 
 ground, where their active feet and legs enable
 
 SPORT OF BUTE. 123 
 
 them to chase their prey with great activity. 
 Emphatically a ground bird, the wagtail is not 
 confined to winged insects, but feeds much on 
 worms and the eggs of land and water flies. This 
 subsistence does not cease entirely in winter; 
 hence it does not migrate, or only partially so, 
 from colder to milder places in our own country. 
 
 The rich fields of Bute team with skylarks. 
 These general favourites feed in summer on the 
 field insects and earthworms, in winter almost en- 
 tirely on the seeds of annual weeds scattered over 
 the corn stubbles. Totally independent of trees, 
 they are the free songsters of the air, and 
 from fields without a hedge, or upland slopes 
 without a bush, trill forth their melody so charm- 
 ing to our ear, while the figure of the little 
 syren, twittering in a flood of light, is wholly lost 
 to our ken. 
 
 The larks introduce the buntines, the first of 
 the hard-billed birds. Some of them approach 
 the larks in their habits, by living much in culti- 
 vated fields, and refusing to perch on trees. They 
 all have bills formed for breaking the rinds of 
 seeds. They also eat insects moderately. I have
 
 124 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 never seen the common buntine in Bute, nor the 
 snow species all last winter. I have an Albino of 
 the former in my collection, shot by my son at 
 Fort-George. 
 
 Immense flocks of finches congregate here all 
 winter, and are most useful to the farmer, consum- 
 ing the seeds of troublesome weeds which other- 
 wise would overrun the country. Where the land 
 is poorer the finches migrate southward in winter, 
 returning again to the north, when they separate 
 to breed. 
 
 Green finches, and, of course, chaffinches, build 
 near this old castle the goldfinch and greyfinch 
 among the whins of the neighbouring brakes. 
 Although so hard -billed, all these finches eat 
 caterpillars and other insects moderately. The 
 truest seed-eater of the race is the goldfinch ; its 
 favourite food being thistle, chickweed, and dan- 
 delion seeds. The green and grey finches are 
 very partial to flax and lint seeds hence their 
 name of green and grey linties or linnets. 
 
 In describing the birds around this ivied tower 
 of Bute, any one with a turn for natural history 
 will at once perceive that I have, link by link,
 
 SPOKT OF BUTE. 125 
 
 connected the most perfect of the soft - billed 
 migrants of the air (the swift) with the hardest- 
 billed resident (the goldfinch) which collects food 
 on the ground. Like all God's works, there are 
 no gaps in ornithology one species glides into 
 another until they are dovetailed into one har- 
 monious whole. 
 
 In crossing the Minch some years since, a little 
 dark bird was constantly flitting past our cutter 
 with all the characteristics of a swallow power- 
 ful wings, long tail, body thrown well forward, 
 and tapering like a canoe. Seamen have a super- 
 stitious dread that this sea-swallow brings storms, 
 and delights in them. But the truth is, that 
 " stormy petrels " dislike the tempest as much as 
 their neighbours, as it is only when the sea is 
 tolerably quiet that they can collect the chief 
 part of their food, which consists of the oily sub- 
 stance on the top of the waters. When the waves 
 rise, of course the surface of the sea is much in- 
 creased, which disperses the oil, and gives far 
 more trouble in collecting it ; add to which, the 
 birds are so light and buoyant, partly from their 
 greasy food, that, like the thistle-down, they ap-
 
 126 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 pear the sport of the hurricane. When feeding 
 they use both wings and feet, and while the for- 
 mer are expanded the latter tip the water, so the 
 little bird appears both flying and walking. It 
 is on account of this kind of " walking on the 
 water n they derive their name of Petrels or little 
 Peters. 
 
 It was a lovely June night when I crossed the 
 Minch, and many a sea-swallow was skimming in 
 two senses ocean's calm bosom. When they were 
 preening off the collected oil its effect made the 
 bird so light that, like a gossamer, it seemed to 
 touch the sea, but not to press it. 
 
 In size, shape, rapidity of flight, as well as 
 endurance on wing, sweeping even over the broad 
 Atlantic, petrels bear a close resemblance to the 
 common chimney swallow. But if the joyous 
 sunny swallow, always associated with verdure 
 and beauty, has this ocean delegate equally sug- 
 gestive of clouds and tempest, it has also a repre- 
 sentative among the sombre birds of night. The 
 night-jar, familiarly known as the " night-hawk," 
 not only connects the owls with insect-feeders, 
 but also forms the link between swallows and
 
 SPOET OF BUTE. 127 
 
 owls. Like the swallow tribe, it is a migrant and 
 insect-feeder ; preying on the night-moths, beetles, 
 and cockchafers, by following and capturing them 
 in the air as swallows seize day insects. Indeed, 
 the capricious evolutions of this twilight spectre 
 bear close resemblance to the sportive wheels of 
 the bird of summer sunshine. It has been called 
 "the night-swallow," just as stormy petrels are 
 commonly known to sailors as swallows of the 
 ocean. 
 
 From hiding in the day-time in brakes of fern, 
 the night-jar is also appropriately styled "the fern 
 owl ; " and indeed the silky feathers, noiseless 
 flight, large eye, dusky colour, and nocturnal life 
 of this bird, quite entitle it to a low niche among 
 the owls ; while the insect-food, migratory habits, 
 large gape, soft beak, and weak feet, prove it 
 equally akin to the swallow family, which right I 
 have just claimed. The night-swallow has the 
 advantage over the day one in a hair-netting on 
 each side of the bill a very great assistance in 
 night-hunting, but not needed and therefore not 
 given to the bird of the sunlight. 
 
 To a heedless listener, the song or call of each
 
 128 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 individual of any particular species of bird may 
 appear exactly alike, but there is often consider- 
 able variety. Song-bird fanciers know this well ; 
 but in their case it may be urged that domestica- 
 tion and care have altered and drawn out the 
 voices of their favourites, just as judicious farmers 
 improve their stock. But I take as illustrations 
 the most obtrusive and monotonous of our day and 
 night birds, and to a fine ear scarcely any two of 
 them will be found in the same key. There are 
 also prominent and exceptional points of difference 
 in the call of a particular cuckoo, as well as in 
 the hoot of an eccentric ivy owl. 
 
 A cuckoo that haunted our garden all last 
 spring and summer, and was most useful in grub- 
 bing up the cabbage and gooseberry caterpillars, 
 put an additional note into its pipe. When a 
 neighbour cuckoo from the near hill, and another 
 from the beeches on the lawn, struck up the rub- 
 rical coo-coo, they were always replied to by. the 
 innovator's coo-coo-coo. We made him a D.D., 
 and the "Dr" had perhaps as much reason for the 
 change in his ritual as if his degree had come from 
 the Senatus of Edinburgh itself. When fishing
 
 SPOUT OF BUTE. 129 
 
 St Mary's Loch with a friend, the cracked voice 
 of one cuckoo contrasted oddly with half-a-dozen 
 others scattered through the neighbouring woods. 
 "We were lashing opposite sides of the loch, and 
 the first question asked on meeting was " Did 
 you hear the cracked cuckoo ? " 
 
 Although living close to the old trees where the 
 brown owls hoot every night, some people are so 
 unobservant as never to have remarked that the 
 " dismal bird " has two calls. The first is one pro- 
 longed note, followed a few seconds after by a 
 juggling imitation. The owl then rests its voice a 
 longer or shorter time according to its whim, with- 
 out any approach to regularity in these intervals. 
 But not to hear the second trembling hoot of a 
 brown owl immediately following the first clear 
 note, is rare indeed ; and I have only remarked this 
 in the case of one or two innovating owls among 
 the many I have listened to under the spring or 
 autumnal moonshine. 
 
 There are no rock- doves in Bute, but great 
 
 numbers of ring-doves (the common wood-pigeon) 
 
 fully supply their place. All spring the groves 
 
 are soothed with the love-note of this ornamental 
 
 I
 
 130 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 bird ; and when searching for vermin last May, the 
 constant crash of the wood-dove from her wicker 
 saucer of two eggs, gave token of flocks that would 
 congregate in autumn and never separate until 
 " the time of the singing of birds is come, and the 
 voice of the turtle is heard in the land." 
 
 When the fruits and berries of early harvest 
 begin to ripen, numberless small companies of 
 wood-pigeons shelter in the shaggy copses of the 
 Kyles, which soon unite into large assemblies 
 under the spreading branches of the old beech- 
 trees, to regale on their delicious nuts. So long 
 as there is abundance of this beech-mast food our 
 lawn beeches attract their myriads, which vie with 
 the rooks and starlings in giving cheerfulness and 
 animation even among the sere and yellow leaves 
 of the shortening day. 
 
 The fine shoals of white fish that used to haunt 
 the bays of Bute, have of late years considerably 
 deserted them. In winter multitudes of " herring 
 hakes" are captured with the net many of large 
 size. I saw hampers full on Port-Bannatyne quay 
 all last January. They are good food when cut 
 into steaks and fried. A few days ago, a boy
 
 SPOKT OF BUTE. 131 
 
 brought me a basket of five very broad-shaped fish 
 with red fins, like the bream or " braise " of Loch 
 Lomond. They were more than a pound in weight, 
 and he only asked a penny for each, and was 
 quite pleased with sixpence for the lot. He called 
 them "silver baddies," but I rather think "sea 
 perch" is the proper name. He caught them with 
 a hand-line, and a bit of herring for bait. During 
 a whole season I fished Loch Long very success- 
 fully, both with herring and mussel bait, and with 
 hand and long lines, but I never either caught or 
 heard of this "silver haddy" in that branch sea- 
 loch of the Firth of Clyde. 
 
 When driving along the Kyles for a day's par- 
 tridge-shooting on one of the northern farms of 
 Bute, a whale of about 30 feet long rose close to 
 the shore. On overtaking the gillie, whom we 
 had sent forward with the evening relay of dogs, 
 he assured us with a face of awe that the whale 
 had become dangerous in the night, and driven the 
 fishermen ashore. Had it been one of the Arctic 
 whales, not unfrequent in the Sound of Mull, the 
 angry freak of the leviathan would have been char- 
 acteristic enough; but as the present monster of
 
 132 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 the deep was only a bottle-nose, or " black-fish/' it 
 was evident that the boatmen had made the lad 
 swallow a story " very like the fierce fish," whose 
 startling entree had whetted his appetite for the 
 terrible. 
 
 On questioning the fishers next day, they 
 laughed heartily, saying it was true that a black- 
 fish had broken a net some miles below, and that 
 the one we saw had begun to blow and lash the 
 water with its tail, but these vagaries were only 
 signs of anxiety lest its young one, which no 
 doubt was near, might get among the boats and 
 nets. In place of dreading these small whales, 
 the fishers were always glad of their company, as 
 harbingers of a successful night's fishing ; and 
 about the same time last year I watched an old 
 female bottle-nose and two young ones gambol- 
 ling among the fleet of " scows," while the 
 crews looked kindly at them as the jackals of 
 their trade. 
 
 Prodigious droves of porpoises also hang upon 
 the herring shoals. The smaller kind, called 
 " pelluchs," often spring several yards out of the 
 water, and come down with a thump that may be
 
 SPORT OF BUTE. 133 
 
 heard in calm weather more than a mile off, while 
 the white foam caused by their fall in the sea can 
 be distinguished at double that distance. Fre- 
 quently, in my walks or shooting excursions along 
 the shores of the island, I see more than a hun- 
 dred of these creatures rolling, splashing, or 
 springing clear of the sea like fresh-run salmon. 
 
 A solitary grey seal has for some years fre- 
 quented the rocks above Ettrick Bay. The old 
 hermit shows himself when the bag-nets proclaim 
 the annual influx of salmon to the bay, and 
 cruises about the coast so long as the fish remain. 
 Last year " the grey sealch " was seldom out of 
 the shallow water, and my watcher was always 
 reminding me to bring my rifle barrels espe- 
 cially when the weather was warm and calm. 
 One day, when shooting on Glenmore and Ettrick 
 side, he would fain have changed my gun into a 
 rifle, for the seal had been so bold that morning 
 as to prevent his wife from filling her pitcher at 
 the spring. " The beast," quoth she, pathetically, 
 " pat up its awfu' coorse head close to me an' the 
 bairns I was feerd it wad come ashore an' tak' 
 ane o' them awa."
 
 134 NATUKAL HISTOKY AND 
 
 Once or twice I walked down to the bay armed 
 and ready, but the enemy was either invisible, or 
 plying his piratical vocation among the salmon 
 far beyond reach of my bullets. This year he has 
 not put in an appearance at all ; and a few years 
 since he also absented himself for a whole salmon 
 season, but returned on the following one at the 
 usual time. The many years that the Ettrick seal 
 has summered in its bay has gained for it some 
 local notoriety, while its curious and methodical 
 habits have so far interested me as to stop all 
 desire to put an end to its wild and wayward 
 life. 
 
 Not being an entomologist, my observation of 
 the insects of Bute has been very circumscribed. 
 I have seen none of the southern butterflies or 
 moths which the mild climate of this island had 
 led me to expect. Neither cockchafers nor stag- 
 beetles enliven the twilight, and not one specimen 
 of the larger sphynxes have we captured, or even 
 seen. Had there been any, no doubt some of 
 these gorgeously-pencilled beauties would have 
 found their way into our drawing-room, along 
 with the sober-coloured small moths which beset.
 
 SPOKT OF BUTE. 135 
 
 our gas-lustres every warm, dark night, as both 
 sides of our glass door into the garden were left 
 open, when the gas was lit, and long after dark- 
 ness set in. 
 
 In the summer of 1864, wasps' nests were not 
 only more numerous than I ever saw them any- 
 where else, "but their size was also enormous. 
 There were at least a dozen close to the castle and 
 garden. I have long had in my little museum 
 what I considered as fine a specimen of the wasps' 
 hive as it was possible to procure ; but two of 
 these from Bute (one built in a hedge adjoining 
 the garden, the other fixed to a currant bush in 
 the very midst of the fruit) were nearly double 
 the circumference of my preserved paragon. This 
 year, although the fruit has been fully as plenti- 
 ful, and the season equally fine, there have been 
 scarcely any wasps' nests, and the few we have dis- 
 covered are wretched weedy productions, scarcely 
 deserving the name. 
 
 As if in contrast to the wasps of the present 
 year, the wild bees have thriven amazingly. My 
 boys found no less than nine " binks " along the 
 banks of the brooklet that feeds the duck pond.
 
 136 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 These hives comprised the yellow "foggy" bee, 
 the small and large humble bee, and one hive of 
 red-hipped bees. In the evening we often re- 
 moved the thatching, and inspected the grubs and 
 honeycomb of the foggy bees' hives. Some were 
 much more cross and dangerous when disturbed 
 than their neighbours ; and it is a rule acted on 
 by schoolboys, that when wild bees hive under 
 ground, and they fail to reach them the first dig- 
 ging, it is useless to attempt a second, for the 
 swarm will remove or destroy the honey on the 
 first alarm from the spade. 
 
 It is a curious fact that honey bees don't like 
 the flowers or heather of Tighnabruach. They 
 therefore fly across the Kyles to Bute and gather 
 honey there. In returning laden, however, they 
 are unable to recross the sea, and multitudes are 
 found drowned. There is no honey to be had in 
 Tighnabruach in consequence. They thrive well 
 in Bute, for, last summer, my boys took a hive in 
 the old tower of Kames Castle full of splendid 
 honey. 
 
 Had more southern night-insects found their 
 way to the genial climate of Bute, they might
 
 SPOKT OF BUTE. 137 
 
 probably have been followed by the great bat 
 Vespertilio altivolans of naturalists. This night- 
 flyer takes the same place among bats that swifts 
 do among swallows. Like swifts, their flight is 
 rapid and high, and the term of their appearance 
 equally short. I have watched them from Henley 
 Bridge coursing over the Thames among the other 
 bats, which looked, in comparison, no bigger than 
 butterflies. They shelter during the day in hollow 
 trees, but never under the slates or leads of houses 
 or out-buildings, the favourite refuge of the two 
 other species of British bat. I have one of the 
 Henley great bats stuffed, and, barring its colour 
 (a rich chestnut), it is precisely like a giant of the 
 smaller common kind. 
 
 The top of the old tower here is a city of bats. 
 On raising the lead sheeting about the beginning 
 of last summer, we discovered hundreds both of 
 long-eared and little bats, each female having her 
 piccaninny attached by its tiny claws to her breast. 
 When hunting in the twilight, they carry their 
 young one too ; and the little creature is so deftly 
 and firmly fastened as not in the least to incom- 
 mode the parent, or hinder her success in moth-
 
 138 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 hunting. The mothers nurse their young ones in 
 this way, which are the most horrid imps it is 
 possible to fancy. 
 
 The grousing of this island would never suit 
 many of the sportsmen-migrants who crowd our 
 moors in August and September. The battue 
 system from the south has been so successfully 
 applied, even to Scotch moors, that in all our 
 first-class ranges the difference between good and 
 bad sportsmen or good and bad dogs is scarcely 
 noticeable. If the man is a fair shot, little else 
 will be required of him; while his dogs, if 
 superior ones, are wasted on such ground, and 
 may even have their mettle slacked, their hunt- 
 ing powers weakened, and their instinct dwarfed, 
 from finding multitudes of birds without working 
 for them. To my mind, sixty or eighty brace 
 killed on these swarming beats deserves to be 
 placed in the same category as a pheasant drive, 
 or shooting rabbits in a teeming warren. 
 
 The moors which give most pleasure and satis- 
 faction to a true and able sportsman are those 
 which, with the aid of first-rate dogs, will afford 
 a bag of from twenty to thirty-five brace. On
 
 SPOET OF BUTE. 139 
 
 such ground he can watch with delight the in- 
 stinct which his high-couraged and keen-scented 
 dogs throw into their work ; his own knowledge 
 of the sport and walking powers will have full 
 scope ; and should his bag be up to the mark at 
 the end of the day, he can feel satisfied that it 
 was scientifically and pluckily filled. 
 
 In the above remarks I only allude to men 
 who lay claim to be called the {Lite of the shoot- 
 ing world. A predecessor of mine, in a grouse 
 tenancy, candidly told me that he gave up the 
 moor, as he had to wander so long without a 
 shot that he was likely to miss from nervous- 
 ness. I also suspected that his kennel was none 
 of the best, for during the term of his lease he 
 never exceeded four brace of grouse in one day ; 
 while the first 12th I shot over the hill, with 
 first-rate dogs, my bag was nineteen brace, and 
 from ten to fifteen during August and the first 
 weeks of September. This gentleman immedi- 
 ately took a moor in Perthshire, and the first 
 day bagged fifty brace. I cordially wished him 
 joy, and felt convinced that a prolific moor was 
 the place for a nervous shot with indifferent dogs.
 
 140 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 Few will deny that the man who habitually 
 brings home the heaviest game-bag has every 
 claim to be called, if not the best shot, certainly 
 the most accomplished sportsman of his party. 
 To apply the test fairly, however, we must ex- 
 clude those teeming high-priced moors where 
 good shooting alone is required, and stick to 
 those second-rate beats where birds must be 
 searched for with patient skill, and shot down 
 with dexterity and unfailing nerve. The shooter 
 who generally makes " the score" on such ground 
 would only rarely find his shooting match with 
 a fowling-piece all over the world. 
 
 The seasons 1864-5 (the two first of my lease 
 of Kames and North Bute) were good breeding 
 years, and the birds free of disease on most of 
 the Scotch moors. By the 12th of the present 
 year they were very strong on wing, and from 
 unsettled broken weather much wilder than usual. 
 My team of sporting dogs is, however, most 
 efficient, and consists of a brace of very superior 
 Irish setters, an old English pointer bitch, admir- 
 able for close hunting, and a dropper (the cross 
 of a celebrated Eussian pointer dog with an ex-
 
 SPORT OF BUTE. 141 
 
 cellent smooth bitch) which can work all day 
 and never cry " enough." The whole four are 
 hard workers, have exquisite noses, never get 
 footsore, and are perfectly steady on all game. 
 My retriever " Auk " completes the lot, and in 
 my whole sporting experience I have only had 
 one to equal, none to surpass him. 
 
 Bad weather at the 12th does not annoy me, as 
 I have no objection to allow a week or ten days' 
 " cheeper law." This year I did not shoot till the 
 22d, and had the comfort of never hearing a 
 squeak all day. The morning was dull, and 
 heavy mists lowered on the peaks of Arran and 
 the Argyllshire mountains. In face of this the 
 barometer steadily rose, and being seconded by a 
 few breaks of the clouds, it was decided to send 
 forward the mid-day relief of dogs, with orders 
 to return should the weather fail. 
 
 Scarcely had we left the lodge gate when a de- 
 pressing drop of rain fixed all eyes on the horizon. 
 A fine bit of blue, large enough even for a Hol- 
 lander's tarpaulins, decided the point in favour of 
 the day; but the "spitty " rain did not cease for 
 some time, and was sufficiently damping to turn
 
 142 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 homeward the gillie and his dogs. He joyously 
 faced about again, assuring us he would be at the 
 farmhouse where we meant to put up our car 
 almost as soon as we should. It was now about 
 nine, and the lad's directions were to meet us on 
 the hill with the provision-basket and fresh dogs 
 at two o'clock. 
 
 At a quarter to ten I uncoupled on the crest of 
 Clochnabae. The heather was at first so wet as 
 to preclude immediate hope of close shots; but 
 the sun was blinking out, and would soon make it 
 dry enough. On circling round the hill, first one 
 good pack, then another, each led by the jeering 
 crow of the old cock, rose merrily in the very line 
 of our range. At this moment a large red hare 
 sprang at my feet; and although unwilling to 
 encumber my game-carrier with such lumber, I 
 rolled her over in very spite. First blood of 
 season 1865; but then it was only footed, not 
 winged gore. Sun out now, and heath drying 
 fast. Still another pack rose wild, and dogs be- 
 ginning to look unhappy. Turned into the sunny 
 side of the hill, where the raised packs had pre- 
 ceded me. Dogs ranging, free and true, but my
 
 SPOET OF BUTE. 143 
 
 first flying as well as running shot was fired with- 
 out their aid. A fine pack rose at my feet, and I 
 killed one, knocking feathers out of another with 
 my second barrel one of the few escapes of the 
 day. First bird in the bag at half-past eleven. 
 
 The red Irishman now settled to a point, beauti- 
 fully backed by the Saxon bitch. A fine chance, 
 and slew my brace. The next pack, found by old 
 Juno, rose sharp, but I got my couple of birds 
 again. The canine, working with spirit and sup- 
 porting each other well, made no mistakes; and 
 although much of the game rose provokingly wild, 
 they procured me some excellent chances, and we 
 met the gillie and relay of dogs with nine brace 
 of fine full-grown birds. 
 
 The Glenmore valley cuts right through the 
 further hills of Bute. Hitherto I had kept to 
 the north end, having parcelled out the southern 
 division for the evening sport. Before crossing 
 to the fresh range, I gave the ridge and sheltered 
 face of the hunted hill a trial with the fresh dogs 
 for broken birds. If a beat for scattered game 
 has been judiciously chosen, and the shooter 
 humours it by a series of circles and detours,
 
 144 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 with the aid of trustworthy dogs, the bag rapidly 
 and pleasantly fills. 
 
 When a young and impatient grouse- shooter, 
 I had a useful lesson on scattered birds, which 
 has often since encouraged me to perseverance and 
 helped me to success. On that day, many years 
 ago, I had reserved my best dogs for the evening, 
 and after some successful morning shooting on 
 the hill-top had broken and scattered some fine 
 packs. Most of the birds had topped the ridge 
 slanting downwards, and I felt certain of heavy 
 shooting whenever I had sufficiently worked the 
 higher peaks. The steep ground and warm sun 
 had been severe, and when I began to hunt for 
 the scattered game, my dogs showed signs of hav- 
 ing done their work. Still they fought bravely 
 on, but, with the exception of a solitary cock, did 
 not stumble on any of the birds we had driven 
 down. Feeling sure that we had passed through 
 the midst of them, I proposed to take a second 
 stretch along the brow with the evening dogs, 
 even in the face of my watcher's protest that we 
 should lose two valuable hours seeking for game 
 that "wasna there." Scarcely were the fresh
 
 SPOET OF BUTE. 145 
 
 dogs free than they found grouse. Another and 
 another point in quick succession, while the 
 game, in threes, pairs, or single birds, rose at my 
 feet. In place of two lost hours they were equal 
 to any four of the rest of the day for regular and 
 deadly chances. It was only the same over again 
 in Bute, and my brow range of Clochnabae hill 
 added three brace to the bag. 
 
 An old gamekeeper used to say at starting, 
 " I'll try for so many brace, but dinna expec' 
 aboon the half o't." I had set my bag at twenty 
 brace, but did not " expec' aboon" fifteen. It was 
 past four when we crossed the valley of Glen- 
 more, and scaled the evening hill, so to make 
 eight brace on Bute moors in the few hours now 
 at our service would tolerate few misses. Even 
 of this short time more than an hour elapsed be- 
 fore we got among the packs ; but when we did, the 
 dropper behaved splendidly. Finding at long dis- 
 tance, and never making a false point, she gave 
 us every opportunity to break the game on the 
 very heights we had selected. The scent had 
 been good all day, and at length the birds began 
 to sit pretty well too. They were found by the 
 K
 
 146 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 dogs in their best style, while I seconded them by 
 shooting at the top of my bent ; and at a quarter 
 to eight the gillie threw up his glengarry with a 
 hurrah for the twenty brace. 
 
 My next grousing day, on the 26th, was devoted 
 to the nearer moors of Kames. A high east wind 
 spoilt the scent, and made the game still more 
 fretty and shy of a point than on the 22d. My 
 journal entry says " Killed eleven brace ; only 
 let off one shot, and three badly-hit birds." On 
 the 30th, was assisted by my eldest son, who had 
 got a few days' leave from his regiment. Our 
 united bag was twenty-one and a half brace, four 
 hares, and a snipe. My journal again records 
 " Both of us shot in our best style, and dogs did 
 their part equally well." Wednesday, September 
 6th, took a rambling stretch with my son over 
 the greater part of our grouse ground for his con- 
 cluding day. At eleven o'clock heavy rain came 
 on, and stopped our sport till near one ; but the 
 clouds then parted, a hot sun dried the heath, and 
 the evening was perfect for shooting. Total bag, 
 twelve and a half brace, eight hares, and a snipe. 
 My share, six brace grouse and three hares. The
 
 SPORT OF BUTE. 147 
 
 above is an unexaggerated statement of the grouse 
 sport that may be expected in Bute, with good 
 shooting, good walking, and good dogs. If any of 
 the three requisite Ions fail, of course the bag will 
 be proportionally diminished. 
 
 I have never thought it worth while to take a 
 whole day at partridges, as all the arable land lies 
 in detached patches far apart from each other. 
 My plan has always been to divide the day 
 between black game and partridge. My first day 
 was on the furthest extremity of our shooting 
 beat. " September 14th. Had a low game day on 
 Skirles and the fields of Clochnabae. Bag con- 
 tained four and a half brace of partridges, two and 
 a half brace of black game, a grouse, three hares, 
 and a leveret." Two of the black game were old 
 cocks flying rapidly over my head at long distance. 
 This is generally counted a difficult shot, but it is 
 more properly a matter of calculation than diffi- 
 culty. I found this out when a lad shooting wild 
 ducks at evening flight. Whenever a paired duck 
 and drake flitted overhead, the male, who always 
 yields precedence, invariably dropped, while his 
 mate in advance was certain to escape. Acting on
 
 148 NATURAL HISTOEY AND 
 
 my discovery, habit and practice soon made the 
 necessary distance-calculation quite natural, and 
 now my first impulse on seeing any bird flying 
 towards me is to note its speed and distance, and 
 allow accordingly. 
 
 My second low game-day was to Eobodach, a 
 farm lying at the foot of the narrow part of the 
 Kyles. Partridges have bred well there this year, 
 and every autumn an enormous flock of tempting 
 but unapproachable black game haunt the hill-side, 
 feeding morning and evening on the corn stubbles. 
 An unbroken heather-beat of six miles from Kames 
 Castle ends in Eobodach fields, so I shot along the 
 moor edge to this partridge ground, killing on my 
 way one and a half brace black game, a grouse, 
 and three large red hares. After two o'clock, with 
 fresh dogs, I increased my bag by four and a half 
 brace of partridges and another couple of hares. 
 Oddly enough, made the same score of partridges 
 on both beats, and with the same number of shots, 
 for I only missed a second-barrel bird each day. 
 
 Most of the Eobodach partridges, when sprung, 
 having found safety in the copsewood flank- 
 ing the stubble and turnip fields, on my next
 
 SPOKT OF BUTE. 149 
 
 excursion to that ground I endeavoured to inter- 
 cept the birds from their refuge. We were for- 
 tunate in forcing some good coveys into the hill- 
 ground, where I had fair shooting, and made a 
 score of eight brace my largest partridge bag of 
 the season. In this low shooting the retriever 
 backed up the gun by securing winged birds all 
 but lost. Neither in wood, furze, turnip, nor 
 potatoes has one wounded partridge foiled this 
 invaluable dog since the shooting began. 
 
 But if the retriever did justice to the gun, the 
 gun, in its turn, did justice to the shooter. I have 
 never used a small fowling-piece that does more 
 unfailing, deadly execution. It was made by 
 Alexander Henry, of Edinburgh, a short time be- 
 fore the " Henry rifles" acquired their fame. I was 
 telling Henry of a duck gun made by his former 
 chief, Mr Eoss (who then had a monopoly of the 
 Edinburgh gun trade), which for regularity of pat- 
 tern and hardness of shooting I had never seen 
 surpassed. He answered by offering to make for 
 me a light gun to try against it, which I was to 
 return if not pleased. The stocking of this gun, 
 after the model of the Eoss one, fitted me so well
 
 150 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 that the first day I tried it in Mull I bagged 10 J 
 brace of grouse (every bird I shot at), leaving off 
 without a miss, and the very first brace of bagged 
 birds were a fair right-and-left chance. 
 
 Although a number have died this year of dis- 
 ease, hares are still plentiful enough both on 
 Kames and North Bute. We can generally each 
 day kill as many as are convenient to carry, and 
 rabbits are again on the increase, after being 
 nearly exterminated by hired warreners a few 
 years since. Alpine hares have been introduced 
 from Argyllshire, but I have never yet moved 
 one, although my watcher saw a couple at differ- 
 ent times last whiter, after they had donned the 
 snow-white fur. I don't regret their scarcity, for 
 on my last shooting they swarmed into a perfect 
 nuisance. You could only shoot there in comfort 
 by always giving them the cut direct when they 
 rose, and most certainly by refusing to honour 
 them with a gun salute. The pointers or setters 
 soon learned to follow my example, and were as 
 callous to the antics and vagaries of these hares as 
 if they had been sheep. When the grouse began 
 to fight shy of our advances, we were fain to scrape
 
 SPOKT OF BUTE. 15] 
 
 up acquaintance with the bluecoats now putting 
 on their wintry livery and with the aid of ter- 
 riers and retrievers could any day load a pony and 
 his panniers with them. 
 
 It is the belief of some naturalist authorities 
 that Alpine and Irish hares are of the same 
 species, and that any apparent difference is caused 
 by variation of climate. They maintain that, on 
 the colder mountains of Scotland, the Irish hare 
 would grow white in winter, while the Scotch 
 white hare would retain the summer blue on the 
 Irish plains during the severest December and 
 January snows. From close observation of both, 
 I entirely dissent from this theory. The Irish 
 hare is thinner in the fur, which has a dash of 
 red very different from the summer mouse-blue of 
 the Scotch hare; the body is more lightly made for 
 the limbs ; and having hunted them a whole season 
 on the plains of Boyle, I can vouch for it that no 
 Alpine hare would live before foxhounds half the 
 time these Irish ones constantly do. 
 
 I have in my collection Alpine hares in sum- 
 mer and winter dress, together with an Irish one, 
 and the difference is apparent to the most careless
 
 152 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 observer. I may also ask, why should not the 
 mild air of Bute have prevented the two snowy 
 specimens my watcher discovered from assuming 
 their unsullied attire ? White, in his ' Selborne,' 
 records his satisfaction at the addition of the 
 Alpine hare to the scanty animal catalogue of the 
 British fauna, and would no doubt have protested 
 against such summary swamping of it in the line- 
 age of the Emerald Isle. 
 
 The same theory is broached with regard to our 
 truly national red grouse and the willow grouse of 
 Norway. Now, although there are strong points 
 of resemblance both in the flight and summer 
 plumage of the Norse bird to ours, there is this 
 (to me) insuperable objection viz., that no red 
 grouse can exist without heather; and it also tells 
 against the curtailers of species that the Scotch 
 mountains should be cold enough to whiten 
 [Irish ('?)] hares and ptarmigan, and yet be too 
 mild to perform the same office for willow grouse. 
 
 That hill partridges are distinct from lowland 
 ones, which many sportsmen naturalists assert, 
 cannot be so strongly supported; and I have always 
 thought that the wilder feeding-ground of the
 
 SPOET OF BUTE. 153 
 
 moor-edge bird has only dwarfed the old English 
 partridge, and somewhat darkened its feathers. 
 
 Mire -snipes are pretty generally distributed 
 over the moorlands and waste ground of Bute, 
 and a good sprinkling of jacks are constant to 
 certain reedy plashes all through the winter. 
 When killed off, their vacancies are generally not 
 long in being supplied.* The boast of the island, 
 however, is the woodcock. Last season was 
 reckoned the worst woodcock year which the 
 natives remember, while the preceding one was 
 the best. Several of the shepherds assured me 
 that, in the winter of 1864-5, there was not one for 
 ten of the previous season, and yet, in comparison 
 
 * An old Argyllshire sportsman assured me lately that no 
 retriever would carry a jack-snipe on account of their nauseous 
 taste, of which the dog had the full benefit from being able to 
 close its lips on the unsavoury morsel. Never having per- 
 ceived this disgust to " jacks " in my retriever, I gave him a 
 fair trial the first opportunity which occurred on my next 
 shooting-day. I dropped the jack a good way off, loaded, and 
 then desired the dog to fetch it. He carefully brought and 
 laid it down at my feet, with every appearance of satisfaction 
 and comfort. This is no doubt one of those retailed blunders 
 which may pass muster long enough from not being challenged 
 and proved false.
 
 154 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 with much of the cover-shooting I have rented, 
 the woodcock sport of 1864-5 in Bute was really 
 superior. With the exception of one distant snap, 
 and taking all chances as they came, I had the 
 good hap to bag the first fourteen woodcocks I 
 fired at last winter. When hard frost set in, the 
 average bag was from three to five couple, besides 
 a fair score of other game. In a really good 
 woodcock year, I have little doubt ten or twelve 
 couple might be bagged on one day by a superior 
 shot. 
 
 The variety of the early winter shooting of the 
 Kyles keeps excitement alive, and adds zest to the 
 sport. My diary of the 21st of last November 
 notes that my son and I killed grouse, blackcock, 
 woodcock, wild duck, moorhen, rabbit, and roedeer. 
 On the following Wednesday, the 23d, grouse, 
 black game, partridge, woodcock, snipe, hare, and 
 rabbit. 
 
 Flying overhead, or pitched among the marshes, 
 large flocks of golden plover and curlews some- 
 times give occasion for " a family shot." The 
 former keep much among the higher hill -tops, 
 while the curlews chiefly affect the waste ground
 
 SPORT OF BUTE. 155 
 
 close to the sea. Both breed freely on the Bute 
 moors ; and last summer, when a pair of curlews 
 were screaming and dodging our path, my re- 
 triever made a sudden stop at my heel. On giving 
 him leave, he coolly walked a little way and laid 
 hold of what (from the commotion it made) I 
 fancied a leveret. The prisoner, a young curlew, 
 was delivered up to me unhurt, and nearly the 
 size of its equally noisy parents. 
 
 A moor lochan, imbedded among the very peaks 
 of the North Bute hills, is the chosen resort of 
 moss ducks. The loch is about half a mile in 
 circumference, and its situation so retired as to 
 attract, in addition to the ducks, about a score of 
 herons. On account of the bare flat banks, stalk- 
 ing is impossible ; but even were it otherwise, the 
 herons seem to have constituted themselves the 
 sentries of the loch, and, taking post all round it, 
 their telescope necks effectually stop all stealthy 
 intrusion. One day, when grouse-shooting round 
 this loch, I noticed that the sentinels were absent. 
 Coupling my setters, and giving them in charge of 
 a gillie, I managed, by great care and waste of 
 time, to fire a random shot into the thick of the
 
 156 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 flock when they flew. The chance was much too 
 distant to injure their bodies, but a duck and 
 drake dropped wing-broken into the water. Both 
 made several dives, and finally disappeared at 
 opposite sides of the loch. Confident in the pains- 
 taking caution of Auk, I desired him to search the 
 bank, expecting a shot when the ducks rushed 
 from their hiding into the water ; but at the first 
 round this experienced retriever found and se- 
 cured both, without giving either the chance of 
 making a dash from their concealment, which the 
 slightest bungle on his part would have enabled 
 them to do. 
 
 Not long after I had my revenge on one of the 
 self-elected guardians of the ducks. Placing one 
 of my sons a little below the outlet, where the 
 flight, when disturbed, are apt to leave the fresh 
 water for the sea, I showed myself on the top of a 
 steep height on the opposite side. As soon as I 
 appeared the ducks knit together and took wing, 
 but flew past the ambuscade quite out of reach. 
 Like all very young sportsmen, the boy fired a 
 warning to the ducks to take it high when again 
 expelled from their city of waters. Now it hap-
 
 SPORT OF BUTE. 157 
 
 pened that the herons were ranged like soldiers 
 along the loch at the foot of the peak where I had 
 attempted my strategy. Directly on hearing the 
 report they climbed the air, and I had just time 
 to cock one barrel and shoot a front-ranker ; but 
 had both barrels been on full bend, I could as 
 easily have dropped his rear file with a second 
 shot. The bird happened to be a fine male, and, 
 for a heron, plump enough to prove that the Bull 
 Loch fishmarket was well stocked. 
 
 Another company of herons have haunted the 
 opposite extremity of my shooting-beat both last 
 season and this. Unlike their usual habits and 
 nature, these last frequent the bare hard moor, 
 and appear quite independent of loch, stream, or 
 even morass. Like their neighbours, they always 
 post " a look-out," but are much tamer than herons 
 usually are. To any fair and open passer-by they 
 give little heed ; but the least appearance of scout- 
 ing instantly raises their neck or puts them to 
 flight. I suppose they feed at night, and only rest 
 on the moor. Since the railways began, several 
 heronries in the neighbourhood of the lines have 
 been deserted, and the refugees have settled on
 
 158 NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 
 the trees of more secluded districts. The old 
 heronry at Gartshore was abandoned at the very 
 time when the trees in the gorge of the lonely 
 Glen-Fruin were appropriated by a colony of these 
 birds. 
 
 With the exception of the never-failing mergan- 
 sers fishing the shallow water of the coast, and a 
 few waders on the shore, the seas around Bute 
 seem to have no attraction for wild fowl. This 
 neglect of the many sheltered bays and shallows 
 of the island seems strange, but of all birds it 
 may most emphatically be said of sea-fowl, " There 
 is no accounting for taste." 
 
 Eoes and partridges are far more numerous in 
 South Bute than on the northern division of the 
 island which I rent. The copses of the Kyles, 
 which so often helped the partridges to foil us, 
 always, however, harbour a sprinkling of these 
 beautiful little deer. Not wishing to disturb them 
 much last winter, we had only one hunt, when I 
 killed a very fine buck with a splendid head, and 
 my son a large doe, both in prime order. This 
 year, when beating for black game, we stumbled 
 on a pair of roes which had acquired such con-
 
 SPORT OF BUTE. 159 
 
 fidence in this forbearance as scarcely to heed the 
 report of our guns. 
 
 The rod-fishing of Bute is confined to a few 
 moor lochs of moderate calibre ; there are no fish- 
 ing streams deserving the name.
 
 GLENFALLOCH EOES. 
 
 "THE roe, Captain Waverley, may be hunted at 
 all times alike ; for never being in what is called 
 pride of grease, he is also never out of season, 
 though it be a truth that his venison is not equal 
 to that of either the red or fallow deer." Such is 
 the stately Baron of Bradwardine's verdict on roes 
 and their venison. And who would deny the 
 conclusion when arrived at from such premises ? 
 If the roe is " never out of season," and " may be 
 hunted at all times," and is never " in pride of 
 grease," I fully agree with the Baron, that the 
 vile trash which he calls "venison" is only fit for 
 a dog-kennel. But then the " if there's the rub. 
 I dispute his premises in toto, and therefore deny 
 his conclusion. The roe may not be hunted at
 
 GLENFALLOCH ROES. 161 
 
 all times alike. The roe is out of season the 
 greater part of the year. Roes are sometimes in 
 pride of grease, and when shot in this state are 
 superior venison to either red or fallow deer. 
 
 I am fully aware that most sportsmen and 
 housekeepers will meet this assertion with a 
 shake of the head, but I am prepared to prove 
 that every season I rented Glenfalloch I shot 
 several roe-deer as fat as good mutton; and in 
 January 1861, the first year of my lease, my son 
 and I killed three bucks within a few days whose 
 kidneys were loaded with fat. Several people 
 came on purpose to satisfy their curiosity as to 
 the condition of these bucks, and all agreed that 
 if they were not " in pride of grease," no deer ever 
 could be. 
 
 Some people insist upon larding roe -deer 
 venison with beef or mutton fat, while others 
 assert that the only way to make roe-flesh toler- 
 able is to stew it. When a roe is out of condition, 
 stewing and larding may disguise it as food, just 
 as the French cook, by the help of condiments, 
 made his master eat his old slippers ; but people 
 who would so treat a roe haunch in prime order 
 L
 
 162 GLENFALLOCH ROES. 
 
 deserve never to have an opportunity of spoiling 
 one again. 
 
 The condition of roes is far more precarious 
 than that of either red or fallow deer. In some 
 seasons very few good ones are killed at all. 
 Some localities, too, seem much more adapted to 
 fatten them than others. During a lease of three 
 years at Glenfalloch, we killed 31 roe-deer, and of 
 that number 12 were in first-rate condition. The 
 last year of a former lease in Aberdeenshire, I 
 killed 19 roes, and my son 5, but the best of 
 these 24 did not equal the worst of the Glen- 
 falloch dozen. What is stranger still, during the 
 year that we killed most fat ones at Glenfalloch, 
 my brother complained that out of a number 
 killed by them, only 20 miles distant, there was 
 not one really good roe. 
 
 Why the Glenfalloch roes were fatter than 
 those on any of my other rented shootings, I 
 never could discover ; but if even there, and at 
 the height of the season, good ones were so rare, no 
 wonder that the majority of sportsmen and house- 
 keepers have branded roe venison with the ill 
 name that has hanged so many dogs. The
 
 GLENFALLOCH ROES. 163 
 
 haunches of all our prime roes are simply roasted, 
 and I never saw any one partake of them who 
 did not say they were the most delicate and 
 delicious of all venison. My brother, who has 
 both red and fallow deer in perfection, decidedly 
 gives the palm to roe when in condition. 
 
 From the Baron's other assertion, that " the 
 roe may be hunted at all times alike," I differ 
 more completely than about the quality of its 
 venison. The usual autumn announcements that 
 
 " brought down a couple of stags and a fine 
 
 roebuck," or " several harts and a couple of roe- 
 deer in fine condition," scarcely need comment. 
 The deer are killed at their best time of year, and 
 are, of course, as fat as they can be ; while the 
 poor roes are massacred out of season, being 
 simply carrion. Until they exchange the red hair 
 for the mouse-coloured, they are only bags of 
 bones covered by some dark dry flesh, with not 
 a particle of fat. The summer coat begins to 
 change for the winter one in September, being 
 complete in November, before which time no roes 
 should be shot. Eed-deer harts, on the contrary, 
 never come into prime order until they are divested
 
 164 GLENFALLOCH EOES. 
 
 of the winter grey, and have assumed the rich red 
 of the sporting season. 
 
 When the woods are thick with leaves, it is 
 very difficult to force a roe into open ground at 
 all, but instinct also warns it not to come into 
 view when at its weakest state. Thus, whether 
 for sport or food, the roe should never be hunted 
 except for the short time they are, or ought to be, 
 in their prime ; and if this rule is broken, they will 
 equally disappoint the hunter and the gourmand. 
 
 Roes shed their horns from the middle of De- 
 cember till January, and are then at their best. 
 They begin to fall off in February; and by the 
 beginning of March they are useless as food till 
 the next roe-hunting season in November. 
 
 There are two methods of hunting the roe, the 
 choice of either depending on the extent of the 
 woods and the nature of the country. In exten- 
 sive, unbroken, and impervious woods, an old, 
 steady foxhound is indispensable to force them 
 into open ground and through the passes. Day 
 after day they will dodge about in these favourite 
 fastnesses; but unless the hunter thoroughly under- 
 stands the sport, and knows every pass and open
 
 GLENFALLOCH ROES. 165 
 
 space of the forest, he will most probably come 
 home each evening without having fired a shot. 
 Should, however, the country be dotted over with 
 small copses and belts of plantation, without one 
 large wood to shelter them, hunting roe with a 
 foxhound is totally impracticable, and if persevered 
 in, most of the roe- deer will leave the ground alto- 
 gether. When a good, steady hound finds the 
 track of roe, he will stick to it for half a day ; and 
 the quarry, well knowing the futility of seeking 
 concealment in the near coverts, makes for some 
 distant retreat, not to return perhaps for weeks. 
 For such small woods many people prefer beaters, 
 but I have always observed that beaters, after the 
 first few drives, shy the roes more, and make them 
 more wary and cunning, than dogs do. I have 
 also the objection to a noisy troop, that it is a 
 lazy and stupid way of killing game. 
 
 The Glenfalloch coverts were chiefly oak copse, 
 with a sprinkling of larch and fir. None of them 
 being of great extent, and all tolerably open, pleas- 
 anter roe-shooting could not be had. There were 
 no other guns than my son's and. my own, and no 
 other beating aid than one keeper and two re-
 
 166 GLENFALLOCH EOES. 
 
 triever dogs. The retrievers were under perfect 
 command, and never were permitted to persecute 
 the roes needlessly, so the latter soon became ac- 
 customed to them, and, feeling confident of easily 
 eluding their pursuers even in these small coverts, 
 scarcely ever took the trouble to quit them. 
 
 In a larch plantation, close to our doors, a 
 couple of does lived all summer. The largest had 
 twins and the other a single fawn, which they 
 constantly brought within gunshot of the drawing- 
 room window; and when singing was going on, 
 would pause with great curiosity and apparent 
 pleasure. There could be nothing more beautiful 
 in nature than the fairy-like fawns frisking around 
 their graceful mothers, listening to the music in 
 rapt surprise. 
 
 After leaving Glenfalloch at the conclusion of 
 the autumn shooting and fishing, I always re- 
 turned, accompanied by one of my sons, for a 
 fortnight's early and ten days' later winter sport. 
 Roes, of course, occupied a good deal of our atten- 
 tion, but woodcocks and wild-fowl had their full 
 share of the time. We generally arranged to beat 
 one or two of the smaller coverts before beginning
 
 GLENFALLOCH KOES. 167 
 
 to range for winged game, but never, unless when 
 hunting the two larger woods on the opposite side 
 of the valley, gave a whole day to roe. Although 
 the river Falloch intervened between the woods 
 on the opposite and those on our side of the 
 valley, the old bucks and yeld does often crossed 
 backwards and forwards, but the younger bucks 
 and those does which had fawns at their feet never 
 left their own copse unless when hunted out. 
 
 On the first summer of my lease, when return- 
 ing from fishing, I came suddenly upon a solitary 
 roebuck with horns of such length and thickness 
 as to excite both my wonder and admiration. The 
 keeper assured me he knew him well, having tried 
 hard the winter before to procure this famous head 
 for my predecessor in the game tenancy. I heart- 
 ily congratulated him on his failure, and myself 
 that my turn was now come. 
 
 Our first winter campaign opened at Martin- 
 mas. We killed nine roes, and procured some 
 very good heads ; but the head, although several 
 times started, always contrived to elude us. As 
 was his habit, the wary old fellow kept much to the 
 steep, widespread patches and scattered clumps
 
 168 GLENFALLOCH KOES. 
 
 on the opposite hill, where the approach of an 
 enemy was readily seen and the means of escape 
 various and easy. 
 
 The snows of 1861 came late, so the roes were 
 at their best when we returned after Christmas to 
 finish the shooting season. Three fell the first 
 morning of our range two of them old bucks, fat 
 as venison should be, and neither had cast their 
 horns. They were both (rare in roe-hunting) 
 open, quiet chances. At first starting, I noticed 
 a buck and two does on the bare hillside ; but we 
 knew, if they were properly moved, the direct 
 path they would choose would be for the nearest 
 copse. By taking a wide circuit, I gained the 
 shelter of a brook commanding this sheep-track, 
 while my companions got to windward of the 
 deer a long way above. 
 
 I had my eye on the trio from the first ; but 
 although the drivers were directly in their wind, 
 they showed no sign of uneasiness until the dis- 
 tance was much decreased. The buck then 
 ceased feeding, and stood like a statue, while the 
 does looked at him occasionally, but still kept 
 nipping the grass. None of them seemed inclined
 
 GLENFALLOCH ROES. 169 
 
 to quit the ground until the enemy actually came 
 in sight. They then knit together, and, led by 
 the buck, threaded their course leisurely down 
 the burnside. The near view of my game was, 
 however, obstructed by a mound, until the leader 
 presented himself within shot. From the first I 
 fully expected a right and left ; but the does, on 
 hearing the noise, ducked back and took the hill 
 again, while the buck, making a magnificent six- 
 feet spring over the paling into the copse, fell 
 dead on the other side. 
 
 About two hours later my son sighted the 
 other buck feeding in a green open patch of an 
 oak coppice flanked by a wall, which enabled him 
 to secure an excellent still chance. His horns 
 were so loose that one of them was knocked off 
 when he fell. 
 
 "With three roes in the larder on the first even- 
 ing of our attack, we did not grudge a couple of 
 frosty days to woodcock, hare, snipe, and such 
 " small deer." On the fourth morning the keeper 
 and pair of retrievers again plied their arduous 
 work in the thickets. The dogs were thrown into 
 the first patch with no great expectation of rous-
 
 170 GLENFALLOCH ROES. 
 
 ing a roe, but they soon feathered and opened, 
 bringing round the quarry full before my hiding- 
 bush. It was, as I fancied, an enormous doe ; 
 and making sure that she must be in as prime 
 order as the bucks last killed, I had great plea- 
 sure in rolling her over. What was my disgust 
 on walking up to find it was a buck, and to be 
 convinced from his size and weight that he could 
 be no other than the patriarch, whose antlers had 
 been so often coveted, and which were now lying 
 where he had cast them, as useless lumber, away. 
 When this roe-deer was " gralloched," and an in- 
 side disclosed like that of a summer wedder, we 
 began to console ourselves that, though hornless, 
 such " a buck in the hand " might be worth both 
 him and his horns " in the bush " of next year. 
 These were the three bucks before alluded to ; 
 but during the last two seasons of my lease we 
 killed not only some more bucks, but also four 
 does, not a whit behind them in condition. 
 
 Although we had such good roe-shooting, there 
 were only four right-and-left shots fired the whole 
 time of our lease. Two of these doublets were 
 distant chances, and fell to my share. Both times
 
 GLENFALLOCH KOES. 171 
 
 there were only a pair of roes ; and in each case 
 the first fell, and its neighbour, being badly 
 wounded, was recovered shortly afterwards. 
 
 The other two double shots w T ere fired by my 
 second son. On the first trial he killed with one 
 barrel; with the other he missed. Next oppor- 
 tunity, however, both roes dropt to shot.* 
 
 At this fortunate moment he occupied the 
 highest pass on the opposite side of the Falloch, 
 while my other son and I guarded the runs nearly 
 in the line below him. Two large does and a 
 buck crossed within fair range, and from the 
 lower ground we distinctly noticed the pair drop, 
 and the third come thundering down hill in a 
 frantic manner. But its panic, by scaring it from 
 its usual track, saved its life ; for although the 
 creature came within reach of the lowest gun, a 
 hollow of the hill hid it at the critical time. The 
 keeper and upper shooter soon after appeared 
 with the buck and largest doe on their shoulders, 
 
 * 1 have known many old sportsmen who have shot roes all 
 their lives, and yet never knocked over a couple right and 
 left. During my whole shooting life I have only done so 
 three times, and yet few men have slain more roes.
 
 172 GLENFALLOCH ROES. 
 
 while the low pass gun bitterly complained of the 
 unsocial habits of all roes that had challenged its 
 powers, avowing that, barring the dignity of twin 
 barrels, it might as well have been a single ! 
 
 A small belt of tangled brushwood fringing the 
 Arnan burn, interspersed with tall firs which had 
 weathered the blasts of one hundred winters, is 
 a favourite feeding-place of the Glenfalloch roes. 
 Seldom more than a pair at a time lodged in this 
 quiet retreat, but whenever they were killed off 
 others supplied their room. As in most small 
 plantations, the surest passes were at a little dis- 
 tance from the wood, and in this instance our 
 object was to intercept them when making for the 
 hill on their way to the next shelter. When 
 flushed, they were almost sure to choose one of 
 three retreats, but the two top escapes (about 100 
 yards apart) might with vigilance and activity be 
 guarded by the same gun. Unless watched by 
 eyes thoroughly used to the sport, the roes were 
 almost certain to flit spectre-like into the burn 
 track unperceived ; in this case it was impossible 
 to guess which of the two top escapes they would 
 attempt, until too late to change should they
 
 GLENFALLOCH KOES. 173 
 
 attempt the unguarded one. The quick and wary 
 eye of a practised roe-hunter seldom gave them 
 this advantage, and, watching every fall or rise in 
 the intervening ground where a passing glimpse 
 might be snatched, could with all but certainty 
 predict their course, and be ready to welcome 
 them with a salute. I had a particular fancy for 
 these two passes, and by means of a smart race 
 between them now and then, killed six roes, and 
 did not allow a single escape to the hills.* 
 
 Our last hunting-day at Glenfalloch was per- 
 haps the most exciting and scientific I ever took 
 part in. We had already bagged 28 roes, and 
 were careless of shooting more, the day in fact 
 being intended for small game. The pair of larch 
 trees which spanned the Falloch, claiming equal 
 right with the celebrated Menai to the title and 
 dignity of bridge, had been safely crossed. Ben 
 Glass with its rugged face had been wellnigh 
 breasted, and I was thinking of the old " packman" 
 frozen to death a year before, and whose cairn with 
 
 * A woodcock was hiding within a few yards of the place 
 where one of these roes fell. It sprang when we were examin- 
 ing the dead animal, and was cut down by a roe charge.
 
 174 GLENFALLOCH ROES. 
 
 a shred of his wretched clothes lay close at hand, 
 when my son gave the warning word " roes." 
 There were three in group, and a fourth at a short 
 distance from them. All were full grown, and 
 much of a size. Excepting a scanty sprinkling 
 of trees interspersed with occasional patches of 
 brushwood, the whole hill-face was bare, and ap- 
 peared more so from a thick coating of snow. The 
 creatures seemed fully to comprehend the situa- 
 tion, and to know as well as we did how difficult 
 it would be to steal on them unperceived. Those 
 in company therefore went leisurely ahead, while 
 the single one deigned no further retreat than 
 to move a little on one side, so as to give us " a 
 wide berth" in passing him. Our game, by appear- 
 ing equally careless and sangfroid, was to entice 
 them to slip quietly into some secluded hiding, 
 either among the alder bushes fringing the brooks 
 which seamed the mountain-side, or perhaps be- 
 hind some cluster of hillocks, where by humour- 
 ing the wind we could stalk them like deer. 
 
 As in all wild shooting, success depended en- 
 tirely on our marking the next resting retreat of 
 the roes, without making them aware that we had
 
 GLENFALLOCH ROES. 175 
 
 done so. It was, in fact, a fair trial, whether we 
 or our game had the keenest eyes ; for if the 
 snow-tracks gave us a hint where to direct our 
 survey, the fugitives were quite aware that we 
 were hanging on their rear; and the three pairs 
 of trained and skilful eyes scanning every rugged 
 neuk of the forward ground, were well matched 
 by three pairs as watchful and wary, noting every 
 moving speck from behind, rendered more distinct 
 by the weary waste of snow. 
 
 Twice the skulkers attempted concealment, their 
 first retreat being found out by my son, and the 
 second by myself. Both times, however, they had 
 an eye on us first, and, instinctively warned by 
 our bearing, moved on again with quiet and 
 cautious step. 
 
 " They'll no stop noo till they get as far as the 
 agle's nest forenent Corrynge," quoth the keeper, 
 while we doggedly determined not to let them off 
 while there was daylight. 
 
 This wood, a straggling patch of alder and 
 hazel in the gorge of a rocky corrie where the eagle 
 and raven built, was at the extremity of our 
 shooting beat. There was still another stiff climb
 
 176 GLENFALLOCH KOES. 
 
 to it, so, despatching the keeper and retrievers to 
 follow the course of the burn on the low side of the 
 scrub wood, my son and I leisurely scaled the moun- 
 tain for the high passes. We calculated that the 
 keeper would require half an hour before getting 
 to the far end of the wood, and fully an hour must 
 elapse ere he could drive the roes forward to our 
 passes on the near side. These passes were some 
 hundred yards apart, and I was dreamily saunter- 
 ing to mine when I stumbled on the tracks of our 
 game. In a moment I saw they were shirking the 
 wood, and evidently bent on topping the moun- 
 tain, most likely with the intention of regaining 
 their former ground. A more cunning manoeuvre 
 could not have been planned, and had it not been 
 for the tell-tale snow, it would have been com- 
 pletely successful. 
 
 Briskly following up " the spoor " to the first 
 fair look-out, I soon detected the three resting at 
 the high corner of the wood, but without having 
 entered it. They were as yet distant, but their 
 still watchfulness, and the equality of the ground, 
 made it impossible to stalk them. To my surprise 
 and pleasure a low whistle from the adjacent
 
 GLENFALLOCH KOES. 177 
 
 height revealed my son's head peering also at the 
 roes. He had noted my change of course, and at 
 once suspecting the cause, had actually seen our 
 game before I did. There now seemed a fair 
 prospect of success, for by placing him above on 
 the outer shoulder of the hill, and creeping on 
 them myself from below, the deer would be very 
 likely to cross within reach of the high gun. 
 
 During the whole time these hunting tactics 
 were going on, the roes, with the exception of 
 turning their heads now and then to look and 
 listen, kept perfectly motionless, and I was first 
 made aware that my comrade had turned their 
 flank by the united eyes and ears of the listeners 
 being raised in the same direction. Instantly 
 aware of their danger, they marched with deli- 
 berate caution round the base of the hillock on 
 the other side of which was the gun, and again were 
 safe from the snare. Sharper-eared than Indians, 
 they had heard stealthy footsteps on the crusted 
 snow, and fairly circumvented them by this 
 masterly double. The snow which had revealed 
 them made amends by being the abettor of their 
 escape, and it seemed as if the white carpet spread 
 M
 
 178 GLENFALLOCH ROES. 
 
 on the mountain by the skies disdained to have its 
 purity sullied by the red blood of the victims of 
 its own betrayal. 
 
 Scarcely had the three roes flitted from the 
 high ground above me, when the keeper and re- 
 trievers rose from the hollow underneath. His 
 hawk eye had caught a glimpse of the guns on 
 the hillside, saw that we avoided the passes, and, 
 profiting by this discovery, he had followed in the 
 wake, until he too perceived the cause. Unable, 
 however, to find out our plan of approach, he had 
 prudently kept himself and dogs in hiding until 
 the deer made their wary exit. 
 
 A better illustration of the power to compel 
 success which knowledge of the sport gives the 
 roe-hunter, I have seldom had the pleasure to 
 record. Here were three men left entirely to 
 their own resources, and none of them made the 
 slightest mistake. At parting, they all made 
 sure that their game had taken shelter in the 
 wood. These deer at first were half a mile dis- 
 tant from the nearest gun, and yet. all three 
 hunters, though far separated, detected them and 
 marked their last dodge, while they themselves
 
 GLENFALLOCH ROES. 179 
 
 had no idea that even one spy had witnessed 
 their cunning. 
 
 The short winter day was fast wearing out, 
 but the pursuers' hopes were as strong as ever. 
 The roes had been scarcely able to feed all the 
 forenoon, and no doubt felt confident that the 
 last clever trick on the hill peak had fairly en- 
 titled them to a supper. We were therefore quite 
 convinced that they would settle to the evening 
 meal at the first convenient halting spot. 
 
 Giving his gun to the keeper, my son scouted 
 forward with a telescope, and from screen of rock 
 or tree scrutinised the hidling corries or scrubby 
 patches which might possibly shelter our game. 
 Crawling on hand and knee to the pinnacle of a 
 wide look-out, we saw his attention fixed. Up 
 goes the glass, to remain steady for a few seconds, 
 when it was shut up with a satisfied jerk, and he 
 descended on all-fours. Before a word was spoken 
 I felt sure the chase was at length happily safe. 
 
 The three roes were greedily eating among some 
 stunted birches skirting a mountain brook, and 
 from the direction of the wind and lay of the 
 feeding-ground could not have been more aptly
 
 180 GLENFALLOCH EOES. 
 
 placed. Leaving the keeper with dogs and tele- 
 scope on the top of the mound, the shooters 
 mapped out so wide a flank movement as to 
 prevent the possibility of being either seen or 
 winded by the quarry, now at last careless and 
 secure. 
 
 The various eccentric turns and doubles of our 
 game had again placed us close to the spot where 
 we first found them at noon, and with so fair a 
 prospect of coming to close quarters at the end 
 of the day, no wonder that the fourth unsociable 
 buck was quite overlooked. Scarcely had we 
 quitted the keeper and dived for concealment 
 among the rugged peaks and scaurs of the moun- 
 tain face, when " the solitary " burst from his lair 
 among the whins right athwart our course, but 
 scarcely had he got into his stride when a shot 
 from my son's gun paralysed the fleet limbs that 
 had almost saved him, and, rolling over the crag, 
 he lay powerless at its foot. 
 
 Our first act was to cast an eye on the look- 
 out. There he was, steady as the rock he leaned 
 on, neither the shot nor the fall of the roe having 
 slackened for an instant his attention from the
 
 GLENFALLOCH EOES. 181 
 
 watch we had set him. Our deer was soon de- 
 spatched, cleaned, and hung on the nearest tree. 
 We then pointed in the direction of the birches. 
 A nod from the scout gave confidence to our 
 stalk, being a well-understood signal that the trio 
 had not been moved by the shot. 
 
 Thoroughly acquainted with the ground, the 
 younger sportsman took position on line, but 
 considerably beyond the birches where the deer 
 were feeding, while the elder took advantage of a 
 hillock about a hundred yards below, and close to 
 the burn scaur. 
 
 A slight motion of my cap warned the keeper to 
 come on. He first slipped out of sight for a little 
 time, and began to whistle and speak to his canine 
 accomplices, gradually emerging, as if accidentally, 
 into view, having exactly the appearance of a shep- 
 herd "wearing" his flock. Dozens of times we 
 well knew the roes had witnessed this operation, 
 and were quite callous to it, so when the man 
 now wheeled to the right, then to the left, but 
 always nearing them as if by chance, the crea- 
 tures were as easily herded as three "harvest 
 hogs." They strayed slowly down the burn, and
 
 182 GLENFALLOCH ROES. 
 
 I was first aware that they were close upon my 
 hiding-place by a head peering over the mound 
 within pistol-shot of the muzzle of my gun. 
 Anxious for a right and left, I was loath to fire 
 until the three had topped the hillock, so the 
 rejected head caught sight of its contemner, and 
 ducking back warned the others, when they all 
 scampered away. 
 
 I was on the hillock top in an instant, but an 
 unfortunate dip in the ground hid them until 
 nearly out of reach, when I fired and struck the 
 rear one bounding straight from me. At full 
 pitch of their speed, the now terrified creatures 
 dashed past the high gun, a long cross-shot. The 
 leader fell dead, but the others, scared anew, 
 swerved down hill, only allowing the second barrel 
 time for a distant snap at the one I had before 
 struck. The pair rushed down the burn's bank, 
 one of them crossed, and immediately showing on 
 the other side, darted up the hill at full stride ; 
 why the other lagged behind, we were at no loss 
 to guess. 
 
 There was no dispute about the lurking-place 
 of the wounded roe. Without a word we at once
 
 GLENFALLOCH EOES. 183 
 
 begun the search, and found him at the very spot 
 we anticipated. He was standing sideways at 70 
 yards from my feet, when I fired and dropped him 
 on his side. He rose, and struggling down the 
 steep, was quickly pulled down by my favourite 
 retriever. 
 
 The dusk was now merging into darkness, the 
 chase having lasted from high noon till past five- 
 o'clock. Weary and hungry, with a heavy roe 
 slung upon each of our shoulders, and a long, 
 rough, dark journey home, I will nevertheless 
 make bold to assert that a more " heartsome" or 
 merrier one never was taken. 
 
 After the many splendid roe-hunts I have fol- 
 lowed, both in former and in later years, it is my 
 firm conviction that gun-fanciers can only under- 
 value this sport from lack of knowledge. No 
 doubt deer-stalking is both interesting and excit- 
 ing to a tyro even from the first. He has the 
 whole open panorama spread before him, and a 
 sort of hazy, mystified conception of the plan of 
 operations. Above all, he is encouraged by the 
 stalker (in whose hands he is a mere puppet) with 
 the probability, nay almost certainty, of a fair rifle
 
 184 GLENFALLOCH ROES. 
 
 shot at a noble hart. Very different is the pursuit 
 of the roe. The shooter is, or ought to be, left to 
 his own unaided powers, and many a blunder will 
 he perpetrate, and many a hard day's work under- 
 go, before he acquires the skill to warrant success. 
 Confidence, of course, grows in proportion to the 
 skill, but many sportsmen give up heart ere they 
 have gained either, and naturally stigmatise " the 
 following of the roe" as "dull work," and point 
 perhaps to the few wretched specimens they have 
 slain out of season as evidences that roes are 
 equally unsatisfactory both when hunted and on 
 the table. 
 
 I have been assured by a Fife proprietor that 
 roes are migratory in the border counties. They 
 come down, he said, from the Highlands in num- 
 bers during severe weather, returning to their hills 
 again when the storms abated, exactly like deer. 
 In my Highland shootings, however, I never 
 noticed any decrease of roes when the winters 
 were at their roughest; and had there been an 
 exodus from my woods I must have perceived it, 
 as I always knew well before Christmas what roe- 
 deer were on the ground.
 
 AUTUMN ANGLING ON THE LYON. 
 
 WHEN tenant of the shootings of Garth, in Perth- 
 shire, in the summer of 1858, I had obtained leave, 
 through the interest of my kind landlord with the 
 liberal proprietor, to fish salmon over nearly the 
 whole of the river Lyon. The privilege, so freely 
 accorded, was no common boon ; for, in addition 
 to the high rate at which salmon angling is now 
 held, this river flowed through a singularly pic- 
 turesque district of oak-wood, moorland, and moun- 
 tain, while the well-separated and finely- defined 
 pools gave ample scope for a full and powerful 
 cast. 
 
 As comparatively few of the larger fish ascended 
 the higher waters of the Lyon, I seldom wandered 
 above the heavy streams, where the best salmon,
 
 186 AUTUMN ANGLING 
 
 when in the river, were sure to lodge. The upper 
 stretch was, however, to many, the more tempting 
 half; for, in addition to the romantic scenery, each 
 good pool or stream teemed with keen and lively 
 grilse. 
 
 Garth House was about six miles from the 
 nearest upper salmon pool of the beat. The re- 
 maining ones, at longer or shorter distances from 
 each other, extended some miles higher. After 
 them, a stretch of very moderate water ended in 
 the fine grilse casts above Meggerny Bridge. 
 
 When the days were long and fine, the walk 
 along the Lyon's banks and braes was wonderfully 
 pleasant, but towards the " hint o' hairst," as the 
 weather began to break and the light early to fail, a 
 small spring-cart and pony, hired from the "general 
 merchant," added much to the comfort, and, by 
 saving time, even to the success of a salmon day. 
 
 Tommy, the pony, a fat strawberry dumple, and 
 his driver, a stout lad of fourteen, had a perfect 
 sympathy with each other's feelings and failings. 
 Both were squat, good-tempered, selfish, shrewd in 
 economising trouble, and pre-eminently lazy. To 
 do Danie justice, he was a sagacious monkey, his
 
 OX THE LYON. 187 
 
 intense love of country gossip having even a slight 
 smack of the antiquary ; and, in truth, the drive 
 up Glenlyon afforded a fair field for his imagina- 
 tion and memory. From the gushing waterfall 
 on Chesthill Brae, with its mouldering brig, the 
 ruinous tower of Carnibarn, the old Popish kirk- 
 yard, the eleven elm-trees called, if I remember 
 rightly, " The Daughters of Glenlyon," and which 
 formerly did duty as milestones to the fat farmer, 
 within a trifle of 7 feet, whose weight turned a 
 beam of 30 stone, Danie had always subjects for 
 our admiration or wonder ! 
 
 Three weeks of warm July days had dwindled 
 the Lyon to a thread when I saw it first, and on 
 asking a resident on its banks his opinion of its 
 angling capabilities, I received the following very 
 encouraging reply " Oh ! you mustn't expect to 
 do great things ; but if it comes a fresh, there's 
 one pool where you might get a fish, if you were 
 getting up at two o'clock in the morning." Plea- 
 sant prospects ! 
 
 An almost uninterrupted succession of dry sunny 
 weather still kept down the river until the Lammas 
 floods. When the water was slightly swelled by
 
 188 AUTUMN ANGLING 
 
 a few refreshing showers, only some of the deeper 
 pools came into low trim, quickly falling back again 
 to their thin clear state. The Garth keeper, however, 
 being well acquainted with the upper water, and 
 also having a good idea both of the size and colour 
 of the salmon flies, no time was lost, when the 
 clouds now and then grudgingly favoured us with 
 their driblets. Long before they were needed, I 
 had tied, by the light of the glorious July sun, 
 every variety of summer and autumn salmon fly 
 that the river in its most exacting state could 
 demand. 
 
 A previous day and night of rain brought the 
 keeper at the end of the month to say there was 
 " plenty water." On running down to the river- 
 side it was too thick and drumly for fly, and an 
 old roadman volunteered the advice that " she was 
 ower big for fishing." Better too big than too 
 small, thought I ; so the casts for to-morrow were 
 carefully arranged, with rod, gaff, and bag ready 
 at a moment's notice. 
 
 Next morning we were off for the high pools at 
 eight o'clock, in spite of a hazy atmosphere and 
 drizzling rain. While plodding past the first
 
 ON THE LYOX. 189 
 
 clachan, a shoemaker said something in Gaelic to 
 a knot of gossips around him. "What's that, 
 Mac?" "He jist says, sir, we may turn aboot 
 hame, for ye might as weel throw a flee on the 
 hee-road as on the Lyon the day." 
 
 I am afraid this well-meant hint did not pro- 
 duce the effect intended, but very much the con- 
 trary. Our only reception of the prophecy was to 
 march defiantly up the brae. 
 
 The first pool, a long and likely one, I swept over 
 with great caution. Few anglers, indeed, begin to 
 fish carelessly; but it is the test of a skilled hand 
 that his patience and wariness never fail, and so 
 he is never taken by surprise at the sudden bolt of 
 a royal fish. Genuine and spurious anglers may 
 readily be distinguished by the calmness and 
 temper of the former in working a difficult river, 
 where fish are scarce and hard to move; while the 
 latter soon lose heart, and before the day is half 
 over fairly give in. Fishers of this last stamp may 
 be keen enough when fish are numerous, and on 
 the rise; but it is only the gifted few who, after a 
 long and barren day, will deliver their first and 
 final casts with equal vigour and precision.
 
 190 AUTUMN ANGLING 
 
 Not a fin stirred in this promising bit of water 
 to my crow-wing fly, neither did a dark mottled 
 turkey feather prove more alluring. A white trout, 
 however, rose in the pool above. Mac, who was 
 apt to be sanguine, affirmed it was a grilse ; but 
 we could not decide the point, as it refused to show 
 again. 
 
 The next two casts were my special favourites. 
 They are considerably apart one, flowing close to 
 the road, is deep, confined, and eddying; the other, 
 half a mile upward, gave scope for one of those 
 splendid sweeps of the line which is the delight 
 of the salmon angler's heart. But, alas! changes 
 of dark flies did not even excite a contemptuous 
 "bell-up." The lighter lures of grey turkey-wing, 
 and brown hackle, and argus-wing with red 
 hackle, only fixed three yellow trout about half a 
 pound each, which, instead of being welcomed, did 
 but disgust me with light flies for the rest of the day. 
 
 I had now carefully searched every pool and 
 stream to the top of the beat, without one break 
 of a salmon. There remained only time to skim 
 over a few pet casts on the return our last chance 
 of cheating the brogue-maker's spell. The free
 
 ON THE LYON. 191 
 
 upward pool, where the yellow trout were so 
 officious, had been twice tried with varied lure. 
 It had scarcely rested an hour, still I could not 
 resist a third attempt with the crow 7 - wing. At the 
 throat of the stream, W 7 here I had so shortly before 
 taken especial pains with this same fly, up came 
 the salmon, sucked down the hook, and was firm 
 and fast. It made a fine run, and when landed 
 was nearly 10 lb., and clear as silver. 
 
 The homeward water was tried with equal 
 pains and change of fly, but there was not another 
 offer all day. In passing the cottages the shoe- 
 maker prophet of evil met us on the road with 
 "Whaur's the salmon?" in English. Mac, who 
 espied him at a distance, had slyly slung the 
 bag out of sight. He replied, with a grin, " In 
 the bag," and nodded over his shoulder. " So ye 
 hae," was the rejoinder; "atweel, I wudna hae 
 thocht." 
 
 / 
 
 In some rivers, such as Spey, where salmon 
 are constantly moving, the second fisher has 
 nearly as good a chance as the first, and a man 
 may often hook a salmon in a pool which shortly 
 before he had drawn blank. Such rivers, how-
 
 192 AUTUMN ANGLING 
 
 ever, are rather the exception than the rule, and 
 in by far the greater number of salmon streams, 
 after the water has been searched by an able 
 angler, his successor's prospects are considerably 
 blighted. On my next fishing day, however, 
 I had the satisfaction of picking up the worm 
 from before the very beak of a "two o'clock in 
 the morning" bird. 
 
 A close and sultry air made the whole genus 
 salmo quite as stubborn as on my first introduc- 
 tion to the Lyon ; and although I swept the water 
 leisurely up to the stream where I killed the 
 salmon a few days before, the only offers were 
 the splash of a playful grilse which declined to 
 continue the game, and the fix of a really good 
 river-trout which slipped off. 
 
 On reaching the bank of my fortunate pool, 
 the sun opportunely glanced on the brass reel 
 belonging to an uncouth rod, evidently hid in 
 a hurry among the rank grass. A pair of hob- 
 nail boots peeping out from under "the busses," 
 as Mac calls the whins, quickly revealed the 
 owner of the rod, and we unkennelled the comical 
 old "Bellman," who shammed a nap to perfec-
 
 ON THE LYON. 193 
 
 tion. He had been out since the dawn, he said, 
 but " hadna steered a fin" or seen a fish " a' day." 
 To punish old Slyboots, a fine salmon floundered 
 up at this moment before us, as if to give him 
 the lie direct. The confusion on " Belltow's" face 
 and the smirk on Mac's were rare fun. He saw 
 at once that the old man had not only seen this 
 fish, but (as we afterwards were told by the 
 Meggernie keeper was fact) had most likely 
 thrown over it, and was " waiting on" for another 
 trial when he heard our approach. His tactics, 
 then, were to hide himself; and if found out, to 
 feign sleep, but at all events to conceal from us 
 that there was a feeding salmon in the pool. 
 
 Taking post about twenty yards above the fish, 
 I threw cautiously over him with my dark fly, and 
 at the first free sweep he sprang beautifully and 
 fastened. He first struck across the stream, and 
 then made some fine bursts up and down the pool 
 before I could tire him. In the thick of it I 
 heard the old man's "Gie't line, Gie't line," to 
 which, of course, I paid no respect, and Mac vainly 
 trying to keep him quiet. When gaffed, this sal- 
 mon proved a 12-pounder, and fresh from the sea. 
 N
 
 194 AUTUMN ANGLING 
 
 The "bellman had no less than three flies on his 
 cast, only about a foot apart ! But even had they 
 been well separated, or fished with singly, none 
 of them, I am convinced, would have had much 
 chance of hooking a Lyon salmon. 
 
 The hot day and hard work made a draught 
 from the spring at the nearest farmhouse very 
 delicious, and the luxury of " a drink " is enhanced 
 by sucking it through our "patent " drinking-horn 
 the hollow bone of a roe's foreleg. 
 
 Sunning himself close to the spring, a stone- 
 blind man was making pirn-lines in the most 
 dexterous manner I ever saw. He also had a 
 little workshop, and coopered pails, " bowies," &c., 
 remarkably well. I bought a trout-line from him 
 as a curiosity, and a neat " cogue " to water the 
 pony with from the roadside burns. This blind 
 man supports himself in comfort even in a lonely 
 Highland glen. 
 
 The last fishing -day with Mac was unfor- 
 tunate. At the tail of the first pool, hitherto a 
 barren one, I hooked a salmon. It was lost en- 
 tirely by Mac missing his first gaff, and being too 
 nervous to take advantage of a second chance,
 
 ON THE LYOX. 195 
 
 after which the fish broke its hold. Had four 
 more rises in different pools, but no fastens, 
 although I spared neither time nor change of lure 
 to effect one. A fine sky and good water, but fish 
 rose shyly, and only nipped at the fly. 
 
 August was nearly ended, the weather settling 
 again after the floods, and river getting small. 
 From the scanty water there were only two pools 
 I had much trust in, so I paid them a stately visit 
 in the " general merchant's " equipage. In one of 
 these pools I sprang a fish five times, fixing him 
 at the fifth offer, and losing him from being ten- 
 derly hooked. In the other I killed a small fish 
 of 6 lb., but very clean and handsome. 
 
 After a tract of fine harvest-days the skies over- 
 cast, and weather broke into continued heavy 
 rain. The first fair morning I rode up the glen 
 alone on the lazy strawberry cob, and found the 
 water in good large ply. I had scarcely wetted 
 my line before the clouds gathered, and poured 
 down their bucketfuls. The river soon began to 
 wax, which of course kept down the fish, although 
 I tried the best casts with large and likely flies. 
 
 Expecting a friend to dinner, and time being
 
 196 AUTUMN ANGLING 
 
 nearly " up," I was giving a closing sweep to the 
 tail of " the road pool " before trotting home, when 
 at this malapropos moment a splendid salmon 
 hooked! The casting-line being only fine single gut, 
 the first touch of my fish proved that, to land him, 
 he must be worked for with patience and caution. 
 From the roughness and steepness of the bank, 
 the safest although most tedious course was, if 
 possible, to prevent the monster from leaving the 
 pool. As he proved " a sulker," there was little 
 difficulty in detaining him, but his phlegmatic 
 temper was such a stress on mine as sorely to 
 tempt me to risk my vantage-ground in the fight, 
 when two farm-hinds who had been watching from 
 a distance walked deliberately down to the oppo- 
 site bank, and set themselves doggedly to see it 
 out. All thoughts of hurrying the salmon, at the 
 risk of the light tackle, were now given up. My 
 friend might be hungry, and the dinner spoiled, 
 but the gaping clodpoles should never see me 
 break my fish. 
 
 After nearly two hours' wary work, the victim 
 became so weak and docile as to allow itself to 
 be guided to the bank. The sight of the white
 
 ON THE LYOX. 197 
 
 gravel, however, always roused its ebbing energies 
 to dart again into the deep. At every dash away 
 from the shore, the laugh of the onlookers was 
 hearty and undisguised, until at last I shut them 
 up by stranding a beautifully-shaped 16-lb. salmon 
 on the sloping shingle. 
 
 My ride home would have been lengthy, had I 
 not applied the only incentive to diligence Tommy 
 respected viz., a sharp spur. His master used to 
 boast that he never tired or fell off in condition. 
 This panegyric always reminded me of a lazy 
 " minister's man " whose master had turned him 
 off for this fault alone. The minister (who as- 
 sured me he " would not tell a fib for all the 
 world"), having occasion to be from home the 
 week before the term, knew that his factotum 
 would do literally nothing when he was absent, 
 unless he bribed him with a good character. He 
 therefore wrote in large text the words, " Sober, 
 honest," &c., and wound up by "he gives sure 
 evidence of being a very durable servant" double- 
 dashing the last three words. " The man " was 
 delighted with his certificate, particularly the com- 
 pliment at the end, promised to do all justice to
 
 198 AUTUMN ANGLING 
 
 the glebe till his master's return, and kept his 
 word. 
 
 My friend met me at the door of Garth House, 
 accepted the fish as sufficient apology for my late 
 return, admired it to my heart's content, and ex- 
 pressed his determination (as he had never seen 
 a salmon landed) to accompany me on the next 
 fishing-day. 
 
 On the 13th of September the spring-cart was 
 early at the door. Including charioteer Dame, 
 we were a party of five, to Strawberry Dumple's 
 intense disgust, who firmly held with the doctor, 
 when ordered to swallow a box of his own pills, 
 that " one of us was a dose " up Glenlyon brae. 
 He evidently seemed to think our unwonted 
 weight a bitter pill ; and both he and his master 
 tacitly agreed to walk all the way, unless when 
 we coaxed them into a shambling amble now and 
 then down hill. 
 
 As our friend wore thin shoes, and the walk 
 from the cart to the first pool was damp, we agreed 
 that I should try it alone, and the party drive on 
 and wait for me at the road pool, about a quarter 
 of a mile farther forward. Hitherto I had been
 
 ON THE LYON. 199 
 
 unfortunate in this pool, having lost the only fish 
 I ever moved in it. This time, however, a heavy 
 salmon rushed up at the tail of the stream and 
 hooked firm. He made a noble spurt to begin 
 then bored up rapids struck across river sulked, 
 and played all his tricks and vagaries. After an 
 hour's severe play, he managed, in spite of me, to 
 roll over the waterfall into the pool below. Still 
 through this danger I kept him safe, and was in 
 the very act of raising his unresisting head on the 
 gravel when his well-worn hold parted ! With a 
 languid plunge he vanished amid the foam, and I 
 rejoined my companions with a malediction on 
 that " unchancy " pool. 
 
 The account of my mishap whetted our guest's 
 appetite to witness the mysteries of a salmon-run. 
 Each stream and pool to the top of the beat was, 
 however, a failure, not even the excitement of a 
 rise rewarding my labour and his patient watch- 
 ing. On the return I could evidently see that 
 my friend's interest in the sport was gone, and his 
 attention had quite flagged. A graceful bend of 
 the river, or sudden rise of the opposite hill the 
 white clusters of the hazel or coral berries of the
 
 200 AUTUMN ANGLING 
 
 rowan-tree each in turn had far greater attrac- 
 tion for the contemplative man than perpetual 
 lashing for salmon who treated all our overtures 
 with silent contempt. 
 
 For the second time we pulled up at my favour- 
 ite "road pool," but a prolific hazel copse had 
 tempted all our party under its shade, save one 
 who held my gaff. At the very top of the eddy, 
 and to the first throw, up bolted a salmon. It 
 made some fine rushes, then suddenly tamed, and 
 was easily " clipped." A small clear fish of seven 
 pounds. A short tract of dry weather again 
 lowered the Lyon. Before another "fresh" our 
 friend had left us, and to this day has never had 
 the satisfaction of "being in at the death" of 
 a salmon. 
 
 Close-time of this season seemed to have been 
 considerably anticipated by settled dry weather. 
 For the last few days that remained, rain appeared 
 hopeless in the face of a high barometer. I had 
 contentedly put up my fishing-gear till next year, 
 when a sudden and unexpected drenching rain 
 caused a fine flow of the river. Danie and I were 
 of course off betimes for the high water, and the
 
 OX THE LYOX. 201 
 
 "unchancy" pool surrendered a first victim. It 
 was only 6 lb., but, being body-hooked, made as 
 sporting a run as many a fish triple its weight. 
 Eose another in the " road pool," which declined 
 to move a second time, and then drove to the long 
 free stream below the blind man's house. On re- 
 marking to Danie that our line-making machine 
 was absent from his settle at the gable of the 
 house, he naively answered, "I see'd him looking 
 oot o' his window." 
 
 The long stream is delightful fishing, pleasant 
 even when one does not see a fish. On this fine 
 angling day I cautiously tried the confined current 
 at its top, and carefully raked the swirling eddies 
 of the opposite bank, but it was not until the 
 broadening waters at its close demanded the full 
 pitch of an angler's powers that a beautiful salmon 
 sprang. When fixed, he rolled round and round 
 on the surface, lashing the water with his tail. 
 After he got down I wondered at the want of en- 
 ergy and pluck in so good a fish, for before ten 
 minutes' play he came sweetly to bank on his 
 broadside. Danie held the gaff, and in his eager- 
 ness ran down to the salmon. " Now take time,"
 
 202 AUTUMN ANGLING 
 
 quoth I, " and clip him true the first trial." Judge 
 my horror when the urchin seized the instrument 
 in both hands, and came down upon the salmon's 
 body as if he meant to fell an ox ! Of course 
 the fish sweltered into the stream again, and the 
 wonder was that Danie's savage onslaught had not 
 snapped the line. Soon, however, the monster 
 came floating in sideways again, when, disarming 
 my ally of his weapon, I gaffed it myself. The 
 monkey came grinning up, without apology or 
 shame, shouting merrily, " I never see'd the like 
 o' that afore." The fish weighed 13 lb., and was 
 so quickly overcome from having, in the first 
 struggle, twisted the gut round its gills, and thus 
 drowned itself. 
 
 My two last angling-days of the Lyon having 
 now really come, I determined, by being early at 
 the lowest pool, to make the most of them. It 
 was forestalled, however ; and a precautionary sur- 
 vey disclosed a brother of the craft, who had come 
 to grief by breaking his line. He was seated 
 mending his tackle, totally unconscious of iny 
 discovery, and most likely before he was set up 
 again his rival was out of sight with a clear lead
 
 ON THE LYOX. 203 
 
 of the water. But this sharp practice availed 
 little, for not a fish showed until I got to the 
 stream above " the wooden brig," the highest cast 
 of our salmon-beat. There I moved a dark old 
 fish three times. He began by a free dash at my 
 black fly, then refused. Rested him some time, 
 and tried him with a lighter; but only a head 
 appeared this time. Another rest, and refusal of 
 same fly, so gave him a brighter lure still. This 
 last was only noticed by a sluggish " bell." Waited 
 some time, changing flies and resting; but when 
 salmon spring briskly at first, and become duller 
 each succeeding rise, they are very apt, as in 
 the present instance, finally to refuse altogether. 
 When, on the contrary, the first rise is lazy, and 
 the second more active, look sharp for the third 
 offer, and take it coolly. The spin of the pirn-line 
 will most likely prove its pleasing sequel ! 
 
 On the return, not even a white trout stirred 
 until I regained the low pool, which my alert 
 Waltonian brother had already skimmed. A sly 
 peep at an angler in difficulties, however, has 
 generally an effect on his successor to the pool the 
 very reverse of a damper. Heedfully, therefore,
 
 204 AUTUMN ANGLING 
 
 the rough sharp stream was fished down till it 
 deepened and steadied, when a heavy fish followed 
 the fly with one of those sweeping rolls deemed by 
 many knowing anglers a hint that in their case 
 rest time between the casts is superfluous cere- 
 mony. Instantly clapping the fly again before the 
 salmon's nose, a furious rush and tightened line 
 proved that I had read him right. He never 
 sulked nor parleyed, but fought bravely on, doing 
 his best to break his chain. A game customer 
 like this is soon subdued, and in less than twenty 
 minutes a 12|-lb. harvest fish lay gasping on the 
 grass. During the struggle I twice saw its paired 
 neighbour feeding in mid stream; and whenever I 
 had cut the hook from the dead fish's jaw, I offered 
 it to the lively relict in the pool. It came at 
 once, but hooked so tenderly that one dash parted 
 the slight catch. 
 
 Although I did not land a fish, the final day of 
 the Lyon has left as pleasing reminiscences as any 
 of its predecessors. A balmy morning and dry 
 road tempted me to steal "cannily" up the glen on 
 foot, more to enjoy a peaceful farewell of the now
 
 ON THE LYON. 205 
 
 familiar river than with much hope of hooking a 
 fish in water so thin and clear. 
 
 "When I sauntered down to the first pool, I 
 found Chesthill's fisherman giving it the finishing 
 touches ; and he told me that another well-known 
 Lyon angler had had "his wull o't" shortly before, 
 but nothing had moved to either of them. The 
 tiny state of the river was warrant enough for 
 " ill luck," and I had turned away to seek some 
 of the deeper linns which might not have been 
 already raked, when the man begged me to try 
 this pool once more. "Three times was canny," 
 and although they had " dune naething, he would 
 like weel to see't cuisten owre by me." 
 
 To please him, I put on my lightest tackle and 
 threw right across to the farther side with a long 
 and even sweep. Near the tail of the pool the 
 heaviest water runs close to the opposite bank. 
 This was the critical bit, as both the fisherman 
 and I knew full well. To fish it properly required 
 a most powerful throw, and yet from the still 
 clear state of the water the fly ought to fall like 
 gossamer. At the second attempt of this difficult
 
 206 AUTUMN ANGLING 
 
 cast, a large red-tinged salmon fearlessly came 
 and hooked. Quickly shortening the line by 
 getting opposite his head, I thought I had my 
 captive safe, when he suddenly vaulted a foot 
 clear of the river and shook himself free. A 
 spectator and witness is a comfort when a heavy 
 fish breaks its hold, perhaps not when it breaks 
 the casting-line ! 
 
 Moved two more salmon in the long pool below 
 the blind man's house, and touched one of them 
 sharply at second rise, but his neighbour refused 
 to come again. Nevertheless, from the scanty 
 water and bright sky, I had reason to be satisfied 
 that any fish deigned to notice my fly on the 
 last Lyon day of 1858. 
 
 Perfect contentment with a few salmon-rises 
 and an empty fishing-bag, by way of finale to an 
 angling season, can hardly fail to suggest "the 
 glorious nibble" of a brother enthusiast. Moving 
 large fish, however, is held by every true angler 
 only second to hooking them ; but many persons 
 are apt to despise the most skilful and patient 
 efforts unless crowned with immediate success, 
 and to such the plaintive wail of an old craftsman
 
 ON THE LYON. 207 
 
 (when asked what he had caught) may suggest 
 no unworthy moral "Nothing but twigs!" 
 
 A popular periodical has lately been giving 
 instructions on fish-culture, which to a Highland 
 salmon angler are more amusing than instructive. 
 Our first lesson is to follow the example of a 
 careful gamekeeper, and trap all the vermin. 
 These are pike, perch, eels, and the common river- 
 trout. The vermin trap is a small-meshed net, 
 to be used "in season or out of season while there 
 is a head of vermin to be caught." 
 
 Now, it happens that almost all our best 
 northern salmon streams, far from breeding pike, 
 perch, and eels, are very indifferent for trouting. 
 Their channels, being sharp and gravelly, are 
 not adapted for these (vermin ?) fish. It is only 
 in the Don, the Tweed, and some of the more 
 sluggish rivers flowing through pastoral districts, 
 that even good yellow trout thrive. Only export 
 perch, pike, and eels into the rapid and rocky 
 northern waters, and a precious life they would 
 lead! 
 
 But our periodical is also very urgent on the
 
 208 AUTUMN ANGLING 
 
 artificial breeding of salmon. " Let us suppose," 
 it argues, "that we have a river with a gravelly 
 bottom, but destitute of fish of any kind. Let 
 us further suppose that we stock it with twelve 
 thousand salmon ova, and then leave it to take 
 its chance. Something like the following results 
 would ensue: The ova would hatch in April 
 or May; very shortly fish of prey would make 
 their appearance," &c. Now, in place of " sup- 
 posing" that "fish of prey would make their 
 appearance" soon after the introduction of salmon 
 into this formerly lifeless river, I firmly believe 
 that even the salmon smolts themselves, like the 
 Caithness nightingales, would never return after 
 the first migration. 
 
 In Australia, where the salmon are forced to 
 come back to some one of the rivers of that 
 country or perish in the sea, it may be differ- 
 ent, but any river of this country communicating 
 with the sea, and destitute of salmon, grilse, or 
 sea-trout, will remain so if there were twenty 
 breeding-ponds on its banks. 
 
 I have not fished the Tay since the establish- 
 ment of the Stormontfield ponds, but I think
 
 ON THE LYON. 209 
 
 I shall be borne out by the ablest Tay anglers 
 in asserting that all the trouble and expense 
 of salmon-breeding has not yet been followed 
 by a corresponding increase of salmon. 
 
 The essayist I have referred to, however, " hits 
 the clout" with his last arrow. "We cannot," 
 says he, '" quit the subject without alluding to 
 the stake and bag nets used for the capture of 
 salmon on the sea-coast." 
 
 Now, here is the gist of the whole matter. We 
 had plenty of fine salmon in our rivers before 
 the dexterity of the netters especially of the 
 sea-netters thinned and dwarfed them. Just 
 in proportion as restrictions are laid on the net, 
 will all the trouble and expense of fish-culture 
 and river protection have fair play. Many of the 
 larger fish are so scared by the constant succes- 
 sion of net apparatus, as never to ascend beyond 
 the heavy dead water at the foot of our rivers. 
 In the estuary of northern Dee, some time since, 
 a salmon was netted of 42 Ib. weight, while none 
 had been caught in that stream so heavy as 
 25 Ib. for years before. Forty seasons ago, 30-lb. 
 fish were frequently taken with the rod in that 
 o
 
 210 AUTUMN ANGLING ON THE LYON. 
 
 river, and the journal of a Dee angler of those 
 days contains an entry of three fish between 
 20 Ib. and 30 lb., taken out one after the other 
 from the same pool, and on the same morning. 
 Ask any Dee angler how many 20-lb. fish are 
 captured with the rod in a whole season now ! * 
 
 Sea-netted salmon are in the finest order for 
 the table. After ascending fresh water they 
 remain in good condition till the close of the 
 season ; but the test of a first-rate fish is when 
 the sea-lice prove him fresh from the brine. No 
 wonder, then, that sea-caught fish are in the 
 highest demand; and it is the exceeding skill 
 acquired by the sea-fishers in entrapping the very 
 salmon as they strive to penetrate and stock 
 our rivers that has done more to spoil salmon 
 angling than either breeding - ponds or river- 
 watching will ever be able to remedy. 
 
 * In 1855, from the 6th of March till the 15th of May, I 
 landed fifty -five, and my eldest son (then a lad at school) four 
 salmon on the Dee. He was only down for a short time now 
 and then, but had the good hap to kill a beauty of 21 lb. the 
 heaviest clean salmon taken with the rod on our stretch of 
 waters for many seasons before. My largest fish was 18 lb.
 
 A PTARMIGAN DAY. 
 
 Ox the west coast of Scotland the very name 
 ptarmigan implies loneliness and grandeur. In 
 the north, where, from the greater prevalence of 
 green stony ground, the birds become far more 
 numerous, and the hills that allure them are more 
 easily climbed and travelled, the association of 
 this lonely denizen of the rocks with our sterner 
 scenery is to some extent weakened. But on the 
 western chain of the Grampians the very moun- 
 tains themselves would lose caste both in romance 
 and sublimity were their summits deserted by the 
 alpine grouse. 
 
 So inaccessible are the breeding-places of the 
 white grouse in the Western Highlands of Scot- 
 land, and so scanty is the stock of this game, that,
 
 212 A PTARMIGAN DAY. 
 
 always excepting shepherds, few of the natives 
 have seen, and some never even heard of, such a 
 bird. 
 
 " Ptarmigan ground " is therefore a most appro- 
 priate title for the magnificent cluster of moun- 
 tains at the head of Loch Lomond, where every 
 bald and rugged peak, capped with snow or 
 shrouded in mist for half the year, has always 
 nevertheless a scanty sprinkling of these lovers of 
 desolation and contemners of the storm. 
 
 In these regions the very valleys and thorough- 
 fares are lonesome and dreary; and despite the 
 crowd of summer tourists that throng its banks, 
 the otter fearlessly threads the Falloch when 
 travelling between Lochs Lomond and Dochart. 
 Sometimes, when watching the twilight flight of 
 ducks, I have been startled by his peculiarly 
 modulated whistle in the still bends of the river ; 
 and a detached rock close to the highway is 
 known as the " otter's inn," from his resting a day 
 there when changing his fishing-quarters. 
 
 The numerous detached heaps of rock and 
 stone scattered along the hillsides, or grouped in 
 fantastic outline on the brow, are each occupied
 
 A PTARMIGAN DAY. 213 
 
 by a family of discreet badgers, whose use-aud- 
 wont title is never disturbed, except when the 
 mountain fox in spring takes forcible possession 
 of the lower cairns, where the abundant stock of 
 blue hares affords her voracious litter an unfailing 
 supply. 
 
 Few, however, of the badgers' tenements are 
 now challenged or required by his supplanting 
 rival, for trap and gun are telling on the hill fox, 
 and, like the marten and wild-cat, he is gradually 
 becoming more rare. Still the old-fashioned 
 " foxhunter " is not yet banished from these 
 primeval lands, but conducts his spring and 
 autumn hunts in the stereotyped style of " sixty 
 years since." 
 
 He is a dark bony man in the decline of life, 
 descended from a race of foxhunters, his father 
 and grandfather having had charge of the same 
 wild district as himself. Scrupulously polite and 
 courteous to gentlemen when addressing me 
 he always gives the honour of knighthood if 
 irritated by the farmers or shepherds compos- 
 ing his hunt, he is a perfect master of Gaelic 
 slang. Being a good running shot, he is as
 
 214 A PTARMIGAN DAY. 
 
 punctilious in claiming precedence for the first 
 chance at a fox as the chief of the olden time at 
 the stag ; and woe betide the subordinate who 
 dares to fire before him ! Two farmers having 
 bolted Eeynard with their terriers from some 
 rocks, and missed him just when the " tod- 
 hunter" was rushing up, he saluted them with 
 such a volley of abuse as completely stunned the 
 whole party. One of the bunglers soon recovered 
 presence of mind enough to unpocket a whisky- 
 flask and deal a glass round ; then, turning to the 
 foxhunter, " Had it no been for your ill tongue ye 
 suld hae had yin tae ; " which knowing dodge as 
 effectually cooled the deathsman of the tods as if 
 it had been a bucket of water. 
 
 How different soever their characters or dis- 
 positions may be, there is no doubt that men of 
 the same occupation acquire a family likeness. 
 Eatcatchers, " molemen," the old beadles of the 
 Kirk, characteristically nicknamed " belltows," as 
 well as cabmen, weavers, tailors, shepherds, &c., 
 all are outwardly modelled into shape by the 
 tools of the shop they work in. No better 
 example of this general rule than the Highland
 
 A PTARMIGAN DAY. 215 
 
 todlmnter. His free step, bronzed half-savage 
 face, keen eye, and sinewy frame, tell tales of a 
 wild life among mountains and precipices, equally 
 callous to the winter blast or summer sun. 
 
 " Long, long ago," I was fishing with a com- 
 panion of my boyish days in a quiet nook of " the 
 Pass of Glencroe," when we met a man such as I 
 have described, with a few ragged terriers at his 
 foot. He was the Arrochar foxhunter, and had 
 been searching the high-lying shielings for a stray 
 hound. My friend remarked that he had never 
 seen a finer specimen of the genus. "With his 
 bold bearing, hardy weather-beaten face, erect 
 wiry frame, short round foot in hobnailed brogue, 
 lithe active gait, and long gun over his shoulder, 
 this Arrochar hillsman was the very embodiment 
 of Evan Dhu in ' Waverley.' 
 
 The foxhunter's occupation on Luss and Arro- 
 char has been gone for many a long year, and I 
 never expected to see this last remnant of them 
 more. Two years since, when landing from the 
 Loch Lomond steamboat at Balloch, on the Leven, 
 a little, bent, very round-shouldered old man, 
 with whey -coloured weaver visage, a suit of
 
 216 A PTARMIGAN DAY. 
 
 decent black clothes, splay feet cased in thin 
 Wellingtons, asked if I did not know Gregor 
 Macgregor. His voice was weak, his step totter- 
 ing and feeble how could I know him, poor 
 fellow ? He was as unlike the Gregor of the 
 mountains as a turkey buzzard to an eagle. 
 He had completely succumbed, body and mind. 
 There he was, stranded in the print -mill, like 
 a vessel wrecked among the breakers 
 
 " Oh, how unlike her course at sea, 
 Or his free step on hill or lea ! " 
 
 I have noticed that foxes are less addicted to 
 the higher cairns than badgers. The reason, no 
 doubt, is, that the vixen likes to be in the midst 
 of prey when rearing her litter. My sons and I, 
 however, have sometimes flushed the dog-fox on 
 the baldest mountain-tops. The sedate badger 
 never wanders very far from its home, and 
 indeed is unable, from its short thick legs and 
 ungainly form, to travel any distance for prey. 
 About the end of autumn their food of wasps 
 or beehives, slugs, beetles, &c., is very plentiful, 
 and is eked out by the carcasses of braxy sheep.
 
 A PTARMIGAN DAY. 217 
 
 They then become extremely fat, and my boys 
 trapped two in October covered with lard like 
 pork. One of them being a very large male, with 
 bright silvery hair, I had him preserved for our 
 collection. After the second capture I put an 
 end to the raid on the harmless brocks. 
 
 The great abundance of blue hares, which form 
 the chief food of the foxes, frequently allures a 
 pair of golden eagles from the opposite hills of 
 Corrynge. They are the only ones of this district, 
 and always choose for their eyrie some one or 
 other of the cliffs between Glenfalloch and Bal- 
 quhidder. The quietness and extent of the hunt- 
 ing-ground have also emboldened the peregrine to 
 build yearly on the confines, while a male hen- 
 harrier constantly swept over the heather during 
 the last year of my lease. 
 
 Such are the wild fauna prowling over the 
 rugged frontier of the Glenfalloch shootings, the 
 background being filled up by the ptarmigan 
 hills. They are four in number Ben Duchray, 
 Ben Oss, Ben Loy, and Ben Achly. The two 
 centre ones are the "surest find," and generally 
 have one or two packs of white grouse every good
 
 218 A PTARMIGAN DAY. 
 
 breeding year. For these few birds there is such 
 an amount of rocky and (unless to an experienced 
 hillman) dangerous ground to be searched, that 
 even with trained ptarmigan dogs, and working 
 them hard to boot, many an enthusiastic sports- 
 man may return without having stumbled on a 
 single bird all day. 
 
 Certainly it is not mere love of shooting that 
 can give excitement or piquancy to a wearisome 
 "West Highland ptarmigan range. Strip it of its 
 scenery, labour, difficulty, and it is nothing; but 
 a few brace of ptarmigan, with these adjuncts 
 thrown into the scale, would outweigh, with every 
 true lover of Highland shooting, the heaviest 
 game-bag gathered with little trouble, sometimes 
 even with little fatigue. 
 
 To sally forth alone on a distant and toilsome 
 ptarmigan expedition had a peculiar charm for 
 me. One could thus realise a modicum of the 
 self-reliant independence, nay, even some of the 
 endurance of hardship, at once the unfailing 
 characteristic and the boast of the rovers among 
 the American backwoods. 
 
 Even a successful day at white grouse on the
 
 A PTARMIGAN DAY. 219 
 
 West Highland districts never produces an incon- 
 veniently heavy game-bag. An attendant, there- 
 fore, is little needed, except to give advice, which 
 a man who knows the nature and habits of this 
 bird, has a quick and keen eye, and a brace of 
 steady dogs used to the sport, is far better 
 without. 
 
 In the year 1862, grouse had bred badly (owing 
 to late snows) on the Kuron, the wild stretch of 
 moorland I have just sketched, and which forms 
 the principal range of the Glenfalloch shootings. 
 My second son and I had good sport, however, on 
 the two smaller beats, averaging from 20 to 30 
 brace during August and the first weeks of Sep- 
 tember. The weather also had been very pro- 
 pitious till then, when it broke, and a fair day 
 w T as a rarity. Wishing to spare the Kuron, and 
 having shot down the full complement that the 
 other moors would bear, I had for a fortnight 
 been looking wistfully towards the ptarmigan 
 hills. Each morning they were enclosed with 
 fogs, and the weather itself was aptly described 
 by an old Highland " kimmer" as " shoory, 
 shoory, shoory, an' rain between."
 
 220 A PTAEMIGAN DAY. 
 
 On the llth September, a rather too clear 
 morning determined me to risk my "ptarmigan 
 day." I had at that time two excellent rock- 
 dogs, one a black setter with indomitable pluck 
 to search every stony cairn, his assistant an old 
 pointer of famed pedigree, and staid as Ben Loy 
 itself. 
 
 With a game-pouch slung over my shoulder 
 and the trusty canine coupled at heel, I left Glen- 
 falloch door before eight o'clock. A short walk 
 along the highroad leads to the rough steep path 
 winding over the first height. Surrounded by 
 natural strips of wood, and skirting the Kuron 
 burn, whose dark and drumly linns raved from 
 the rocky abyss, this track ended in the heathery 
 morasses at the foot of the Kuron hill. Hitherto 
 I had been threading the covert-haunts of roes 
 and black-game, but now the route lay for eight 
 long miles among the domains of grouse and deer. 
 
 Although the Kuron hill, from its very rugged- 
 ness, sometimes gave a short stretch of tolerably 
 level walking, these eight miles of moorland were 
 nevertheless one continued climb till they reached 
 the base of Ben Loy. Sometimes a pack of grouse
 
 A PTARMIGAN DAY. 221 
 
 or a solitary old cock would rise within shot, but 
 I prevented all unnecessary loading of the game- 
 bag by carrying an empty gun. 
 
 The heather at last began to merge into green 
 patches, and the granite boulders became more 
 frequent. In place of starting up singly at inter- 
 vals, the alpine hares showed in threes and fours 
 on all the adjacent knolls, and in their midst was 
 the fox's cairn, where the last spring litter had 
 been destroyed. 
 
 Towering before me in solitary majesty, its 
 crown of granite gleaming in the autumn sun, the 
 sharp peaks and beetling scaurs of Ben Loy gave 
 proof that the day's labour was only about to 
 begin. The deceptive intervening heights and 
 hollows made the mountain appear close before 
 me, but there was still a good extent of ragged 
 grass -ground between my stand -point and the 
 first steep pull, which was really the base of the 
 hill. This ground, blending into grass from 
 heather, was a favourite resort of stray deer from 
 the Black Mount Forest, so I took a resting sur- 
 vey, meaning to profit by it the next opportunity. 
 There were only, however, a few scattered sheep
 
 222 A PTARMIGAN DAY. 
 
 on the sky-line, and a shepherd with his collie 
 stealing quietly down the glen. 
 
 Not until the first shoulder of Ben Loy is sur- 
 mounted can the ptarmigan ground be said to 
 begin. The green plant, as necessary to the 
 existence of white grouse as heather to the red, 
 then shoots up among the incessant rock and 
 stone some heaped into shapeless masses, form- 
 ing gloomy caverns, but more often scattered 
 regularly along the hill face, like the handiwork 
 of some primeval giant. 
 
 I had just loaded, and was about to release my 
 dogs, when from a crag above I detected two small 
 heads peering down at my proceedings. Glad 
 that my four-footed pair were still coupled, and 
 feeling confident that no birds but those I was in 
 pursuit of would be found so high, I only waited 
 to satisfy myself by the motion of one of them 
 that the two dark knobs were birds' heads, when, 
 taking sure marks, I stalked round the rocks and 
 came in on the opposite side. To my dismay, a 
 brace of golden plover, in happy security, were 
 within twenty yards of my gun muzzle ! In place 
 of stringing both sitting at one shot, with a con-
 
 A PTARMIGAN DAY. 223 
 
 temptuous jerk I set free the dogs, when the plover 
 flew screaming down the hill. 
 
 A few moments proved the prudence of this 
 forbearance, whatever the motive ; for Bob the 
 setter had scarcely taken one sweep of the moun- 
 tain scaur, when he dropped into a dead set. The 
 pointer was also statue-like in a moment ; but ere 
 I moved a step, a pack of seven ptarmigan rose 
 out of reach, and skirted the bald hill-face straight 
 forward. I was marking their course when the 
 eighth sprang up, but, taking the opposite direc- 
 tion, crossed me a long side-chance. I fired ; but, 
 if struck, the rapid and determined flight round the 
 steep angle of the cliffs gave no encouragement to 
 pursue. 
 
 The line of the pack, however, was more easily 
 traced and followed ; for although the mountain 
 was as thickly studded with stones as a well-mac- 
 adamised highway, there were no precipices and 
 even few hill-scaurs to contend with. Hunting 
 my dogs in little circles now on one side, then 
 on the other I yet trusted my own eyes quite as 
 much as their noses, and took good care never to 
 lose my bearings of the exact line of my game.
 
 224 A PTARMIGAN DAY. 
 
 Calculating the ordinary flight of the white 
 grouse, I had now reached the limit where it 
 was probable the pack might plump down, when, 
 raising my head from the scrutiny of a tempting 
 cairn, I saw the farther peaks enveloped in dense 
 mist, and at the rate it was driving onwards the 
 whole range would also in no time be engulfed, 
 making the solitary being on the blank mountain 
 nearly as helpless as the sons of Egypt amid the 
 thick darkness that "could be felt." 
 
 Facing about, I sped before the grim pursuer 
 with the desperate haste of an Indian from a 
 jungle fire, and had just reached the trusty guid- 
 ance of a well-known watercourse, when suddenly 
 a slight breeze on my face gave token that the 
 wind had changed. Instead of rushing through 
 the hill-trough, the fog, arrested in mid course, 
 was rolled into blacker masses and slowly retreat- 
 ing, while blinks of sunlight regained possession of 
 the murky crags. 
 
 Very soon the whole line of hills looked low 
 and blue as before, and the mist disappeared as 
 mysteriously as it arose. The lost ground was 
 quickly retraced, but I had scarcely reached the
 
 A PTAKMIGAN DAY. 225 
 
 point where I was headed by the fog, when, cast- 
 ing my eyes over the heights above, there was the 
 pack, some perched on the granite boulders and 
 the rest on the ground, only a few gunshots off. 
 The dogs were instantly "heeled in," and, slipping 
 softly up, I was almost within reach when my 
 game looked scared and flew. Only six, however, 
 rose, and the seventh was no doubt in hiding 
 among the stones. When laid on the scent, the 
 dogs instantly stood firm, and at the same moment 
 the ptarmigan flew, and was as quickly brought 
 low. 
 
 The pack of six made straight for the first 
 ground, and their pertinacious visitor followed, in 
 the hope that if he obtained a third meeting they 
 ought to be less shy of his advances. The rocks 
 between me and the hollow where they were at 
 feed when first discovered were rather hurried 
 over than hunted, but all my vigilance and the 
 utmost pains of my careful dogs found no trace 
 of them there. My plan, therefore, was to take 
 a wide circling cast both up and down the hill, 
 and, gradually contracting it, leave " no stone un- 
 searched " where they could possibly have hidden, 
 p
 
 226 A PTARMIGAN DAY. 
 
 I had barely reached the outermost, and what 
 appeared to me the least attractive, disc of my 
 circle, when the setter pitched sharply down with 
 that self-satisfied look back to his master which 
 says as plainly as words, " I have them now." On 
 getting to the dogs' side he rose and stepped 
 briskly forward to the top of a mound, under 
 which the six birds rose together. Two flew back 
 again across the mountain, but four dashed down- 
 wards, making for the peak below. The whole 
 lot were nearly out of reach, but I fired quick at 
 the old cock of the four, when he dropped his legs 
 and soon after towered and fell. 
 
 The three remaining birds being driven into 
 lower and easier ground, there was every prospect, 
 by following quickly, of soon coming on their 
 traces again. After a flight, white grouse as well 
 as red are much inclined to pitch down under 
 what shepherds call " the snibs " (prominent 
 points) of a hill As soon, then, as I had de- 
 scended to their line and given the dogs a fair 
 wind, I began the quest of these excrescences, and 
 very soon was cheered by both dogs drawing to a 
 dead point. This time the game sprang fair, and
 
 A PTARMIGAN DAY. 227 
 
 I dropped one dead with my first barrel and hit 
 another badly with the second. 
 
 The struck bird again dipped straight down-hill 
 and settled on the lowest shoulder of the moun- 
 tain, where I had the good hap to mark it, while 
 the remaining one, flying high in a contrary direc- 
 tion, was of course given up. Having made out 
 the exact group of rocks where the disabled bird 
 sought shelter, I coupled the dogs and set off 
 down the steep. On the very brink of a crag, 
 and beautifully placed for a sitting chance, I soon 
 perceived a round grey ball. It was, however, so 
 precisely similar to many of the small stones 
 dotted around, that until the breeze ruffled a 
 feather I could not make certain of my game. At 
 once aware that if the bird was able to rise it 
 would dodge over the rocks without giving time 
 even for a snap, I made all safe by a still poking 
 shot. 
 
 By the downward course of the last bagged 
 birds, I again found myself below the rocky 
 steeps of the mountain face, but, being still 
 pretty fresh, was tempted to try for new game 
 on Ben Oss, instead of re-scaling Ben Loy after
 
 228 A PTAKM1GAN DAY. 
 
 the remains of the scattered pack. The day was 
 wearing on ; having, however, two brace in the 
 bag, I sat down by a spring, and shared my crust 
 with the dogs in calm content. 
 
 Ben Oss, which, although fully as steep and 
 rugged, is not nearly so high as Ben Loy, always 
 harbours a pack or two of white grouse, where, 
 from the nature and lie of the rocks, they are 
 both more easily found and followed. 
 
 In order to spare my dogs unnecessary fatigue, 
 I kept them on the couple until well into the 
 ptarmigan feeding-ground; but just when I had 
 gained the southern ridge of the mountain, and 
 was about to commence the range, two beings came 
 suddenly into view, so ludicrously out of keeping 
 with the savage scene that the very dogs stared 
 at them with wonder. There they were in bright 
 scarlet, working amidst the desolation with their 
 instruments at the Government survey. When, 
 in reply to my query whether they had seen ptar- 
 migan, the Garibaldi apparition, with a decided 
 Berkshire accent, described a large pack of grouse 
 which they had "flushed among the 'eath," I 
 turned sharply round, and was off in a moment.
 
 A PTARMIGAN DAY. 229 
 
 Both sides of Ben Oss descend abruptly into 
 rocky precipices. They can only be ranged to 
 advantage, therefore, by keeping the crest of the 
 hill, and inclining to either slope as the skill of 
 the shooter suggests. Of course the game is 
 easier found by the dogs on the windward 
 side ; but as all birds like shelter, a good and 
 quick shot will get more, though not such fair 
 chances, by hunting chiefly to leeward. On the 
 present occasion a fair light breeze wafted 
 along the mountain-top, equally favouring both 
 ridges. 
 
 Carefully ranging the top, but always with a 
 serpentine course first to one ridge then across to 
 the other, I had nearly finished the search of the 
 mountain from south to north ere I was rewarded 
 by the statuesque profile of the pointer on the 
 very summit of a crag, and at its base was the 
 setter squatted firm, evidently close to his game. 
 The birds rose from some rocks below the ridge, 
 so when they darted over the precipice the 
 chance was quick and difficult. One fell to 
 the first shot, but the second was nearly out of 
 reach. The pack only contained four, but as the
 
 230 A PTAEMIGAN DAY. 
 
 remaining three skimmed round the northern 
 bend of the hill into lower and smoother ground, 
 I had little doubt of recovering them again. 
 
 On the flat where I had calculated, the pointer 
 at once touched on the scent ; but before he had 
 time to settle, a brace of ptarmigan rose wild; and 
 took a straight course for the adjoining mountain 
 of Duchray. Confident of a shot at the third, 
 I ran forward to where they had taken wing, but 
 was again balked, for the setter came suddenly 
 down wind on the other side, and poked up the 
 bird at the very spot I had so hastily quitted! 
 It laboured, however, being evidently touched by 
 my second barrel in the preceding double shot, 
 and, incapable of the daring flight of its com- 
 panions, turned back on Ben Oss, and slunk into 
 a "gully" close at hand. It was easily found 
 sprung at my feet, and dropped dead down the 
 ravine. 
 
 The sun was now slanting behind the western 
 hills, and, barring the short respite when " the 
 hunter produced his scanty pittance at noon," I 
 had walked hard since early morn. After so try- 
 ing a day, three brace of ptarmigan on one's shoul-
 
 A PTARMIGAN DAY. 231 
 
 der were not to be " made light of," so, turning 
 my back on their mountains, I plodded the home- 
 ward ten-mile walk through green morass and 
 over heathery brae, only reaching my own door 
 when the beetle began to drone and the bat to 
 
 fly-
 
 THE COMMON DOTTEREL. 
 
 WHATEVER the reason, this bird is yearly becom- 
 ing a rarer visitant to North Britain. Frequent- 
 ing only a few favoured places, and ten days or a 
 fortnight being the limit of its stay, no wonder 
 that this beautifully -tinted variety is about as 
 difficult to meet with as any of the whole plover 
 tribe. Even in the palmy days of Pennant, sam- 
 ples of the dotterel killed in Britain were not 
 very attainable, as the following anecdote, told 
 me by an English clergyman, will serve to show. 
 
 When spending the winter at Great Malvern 
 six years ago, this gentleman, being one of the 
 directors of the Museum, was showing me the 
 collection. I took occasion to ask him if there 
 were any dotterels in the neighbourhood, as I had
 
 THE COMMON DOTTEREL. 233 
 
 been trying for years to shoot one, but had never 
 yet seen a single specimen in its wild state. 
 " When I was a young man," said he, " Pennant 
 made me the same complaint, and suggested that, 
 in place of being called common, the bird deserved 
 the title of the uncommon dotterel." Soon after- 
 wards this clergyman procured and forwarded a 
 specimen to Pennant. And now comes the re- 
 markable part of the story. For thirty years he 
 never met the great naturalist, who had been 
 totally blind for some time. After this long 
 interval, happening to be in the old man's com- 
 pany, he walked up to him and said, " I suppose 
 I need hardly hope you will remember me, Mr 
 Pennant ? " The blind man thought for a mo- 
 ment, and then called out with sudden eagerness, 
 " Ah ! my friend of the dotterel ! " 
 
 The usual time of the dotterel's arrival is from 
 the 9th to the 14th of May, and they remain 
 about ten days or a fortnight on their first ground 
 before separating for the higher breeding-places. 
 The nest is most difficult to find, and a dotterel's 
 egg is therefore a great prize to the collector. 
 They come to this country in " trips" of from five
 
 234 THE COMMON DOTTEKEL. 
 
 or six to a dozen, and pitch on undulating downs 
 and hillocks near the sea. Eough grass and 
 heather has less attraction for this bird than thin 
 fallow fields. But the most favoured feeding- 
 ground of all is a newly broken up and sown 
 down field of old lea, where they seem to find the 
 most abundant supply. 
 
 We were about to leave Edinburgh for our 
 country home, when a note from the courteous 
 and accomplished Baronet of Dunglass warned me 
 that the dotterels had appeared. This was on the 
 12th of May of the present year. On the 14th I 
 took the earliest train out, and was at Dunglass 
 to breakfast. Directly after, the head-keeper and 
 two assistants were in waiting; and by every 
 means in his power my kind host had endeavoured 
 to insure success. 
 
 We threaded the glorious woody ravine sur- 
 rounding the baronial halls of Dunglass, and I 
 then started on a most fascinating coast drive, 
 with my old acquaintances the Bass and the May 
 in the distance, while the far view to the south 
 was bounded by the romantic outline of Fast 
 Castle, whose battlements could be dimly traced.
 
 THE COMMON DOTTEREL. 233 
 
 At the side of the road was the ruin of a church, 
 since used, or rather abused, as the grand empo- 
 rium of a smuggling gang. Here many a Dirk 
 Hatteraick of the Forth had found a safe and 
 secret refuge for the contents of his lugger ; and 
 if the mouldering walls could speak, strange stories 
 might they bring to light. Soon after we drove 
 over Pease Bridge, the highest arch perhaps in 
 Scotland. Looking down from it made one's head 
 swim round. 
 
 The keeper had despatched one of his aide-de- 
 camps to search the heights near the sea, but 
 retained the other, as he, having noticed the 
 arrival of the dotterels, could guide us to the 
 fields where they had been feeding. We com- 
 menced our beat very systematically. Often in 
 line, but sometimes separating, we quartered each 
 field with the regularity of well-trained setters, 
 and never left it while there was a corner untried. 
 And in truth there was need for this carefulness, 
 as our game, except when the variegated breast of 
 an old male was turned towards us, was as like 
 the colour of fallow or lea ground as a ptarmigan 
 to the granite rock.
 
 236 THE COMMON DOTTEREL. 
 
 The birds had shifted, and the old sub began to 
 look unhappy ; not a trace of them where he had 
 noted two small flocks on the llth, and we had 
 looked all the ground strictly. The day must 
 certainly prove a failure unless the far scout was 
 successful. We made for his heights, and saw 
 him watching our approach. A wave of his arm 
 prepared us for the good news that he had spied 
 a flock of twelve, and hoped they were safe in the 
 adjoining fallows. Again we were foiled by the 
 restlessness of our quarry ; for in place of alight- 
 ing where the man supposed, the birds had flown 
 southwards, as a dyke-mason informed us, and 
 passed him within throw of his trowel. 
 
 The march we then continued to the extremity 
 of our beat, but no appearance of the flock, when 
 the keeper suggested, as a forlorn hope, that we 
 should re-search the field where his assistant had 
 seen the twelve so lately. An old man was put- 
 ting up a gate in one of these fields. " Perhaps 
 he may help us, like the mason," I suggested. 
 " Oh ! sir, he's frae the Hielants ; he'll no ken 
 them." " Donal, hae ye seen thae birds that 
 flee a' thegither ? " " There micht be plenty
 
 THE COMMON DOTTEREL. 237 
 
 wad pass me, but I couldna tell them frae 
 ithers." 
 
 A laugh with, or at, old Donald cheered us for 
 a look through the last two fields. Only three- 
 quarters of an hour now remained if I wished to 
 catch the afternoon return-train, and we had gone 
 over one field, and half the other, when the young 
 watcher halted and listened. I was instantly on 
 my guard, and heard for the first time in my life 
 the "twit, twit, twit" of the dotterel, and soon 
 the company of twelve careered overhead at a 
 great height. Contracting and lowering their 
 circles, they darted out of sight behind a knoll, 
 and we now felt sure they were snugly grounded 
 in the same field with ourselves. 
 
 The youngest assistant was on my left when 
 we began the search, which we had scarcely done, 
 when, only a gunshot beyond him, he discovered 
 the flock. A halt and sign brought me to his 
 side. Next me stood a brilliant male, and the 
 rest, a good deal scattered, were beyond him. 
 Getting the old cock in line with as many as 
 possible, I fired a raking charge out of my heavy 
 duck-gun. He lay dead, as well as a couple of
 
 238 THE COMMON DOTTEREL. 
 
 hens on the further side of him. The rest wheeled 
 round and round high in the air, and again lit in 
 the same field. The keeper noted the spot, and 
 brought me up to it. Again an old male was my 
 aim; but getting the group better together, another 
 cock and two hens also fell to this discharge. 
 
 Sir James's dog- cart was close at hand, so, 
 selecting two brightly-plumaged cocks and two 
 hens for my brother's collection and my own, I 
 left Dunglass and returned to Edinburgh by the 
 middle of the afternoon, much gratified with so 
 agreeable a day, and the possession of so long- 
 coveted a prize.
 
 THE WILDS OF SUTHERLAND. 
 
 ALTNAHAEKA DUKNESS SCOURIE INCHNADAMFF. 
 
 MY first sight of Sutherland was in the summer 
 of 1823 ; but what changes have these forty-three 
 years wrought on this remote and primitive land ! 
 So far as I remember, there were then no white- 
 faced sheep, and the moors and mountains were 
 grazed by the old-fashioned blackfaces, inter- 
 spersed with groups of " black cattle," the pic- 
 turesque hirsel of the glens. 
 
 The savage precipices had tenfold interest as 
 the constant haunts of golden eagles or peregrine 
 falcons, while most of the sea-cliffs or lonely 
 mountain tarns were associated with eyries of the 
 erne or the osprey. 
 
 The rank and luxuriant heather had not then
 
 240 THE WILDS OF SUTHERLAND. 
 
 been consumed to accommodate the vast flocks of 
 Cheviots ; the grouse were regularly distributed 
 and healthy ; while old deer with noble heads 
 were far more common than in these modern days 
 of cost and preservation, when numbers are made 
 to atone for lack of size and high bearing. 
 
 The so-called vermin have disappeared, and no 
 wonder. Like Indian scalps, a bribe is paid down 
 by the shooting .tenants for the head of each 
 winged or footed creature of prey ; and as this 
 blood-money graduates in value from the nobler 
 to the meaner birds or animals, of course the skill 
 and cupidity of the keepers is chiefly directed to 
 those magnificent specimens long ago driven to 
 remote Highland tracts, but now in a fair way of 
 being extirpated altogether. 
 
 The " iron road " now ends at Bonar Bridge, on 
 the confines of Sutherland ; so, in order to pene- 
 trate the lonesome straths and mountain roads of 
 this sheep and deer grazed province, my son and 
 I hired a neat little waggonette from Ardgay. 
 
 After baiting at Lairg, the first day's drive 
 brought us to Altnaharra at half-past seven in 
 the evening. The inn was exactly in the same
 
 THE WILDS OF SUTHEKLAND. 241 
 
 state of cleanliness, order, and comfort as on my 
 last visit, nine years since; and my old acquaint- 
 
 4 
 
 ance, Harry Munro, the landlord, as civil and 
 obliging as ever. 
 
 A course of fine weather had dried up the 
 streams, but as there was some dead water at the 
 foot of the feeding-burn of Loch ISTaver, my son 
 borrowed Harry's nondescript rod to try for any 
 stray loch -trout that might be feeding in this 
 estuary. 
 
 The chief object of our northern tour being to 
 collect varieties for the museum, we had not, in 
 the face of so long a drought, added the encum- 
 brance of fishing-rods, but a fly-book always 
 forms part of our travelling gear, let the weather 
 be wet or dry. In defiance of the remonstrances 
 of Harry's farm man, who insisted they were 
 " ower sma'," the fisher selected three flies to suit 
 his own fancy, and by half -past nine landed 
 twenty loch-trout amply sufficient for a supper 
 that night, for a remove before the excellent roast 
 beef of our next day (Sunday) dinner, and for an 
 adjunct to Monday's breakfast before leaving for 
 Durness. When our trap was packing, Harry
 
 242 THE WILDS OF SUTHEKLAND. 
 
 quietly stepped up to me and asked, " What flees 
 the young gentleman fished wi', as he had never 
 seen so many troots ta'en oot o' that bit water 
 before." 
 
 Hail-showers at night, the hill-tops white in 
 the morning, and keen east wind, changed the 
 temperature from summer to almost winter again. 
 However, before reaching "bonnie Strathmore" 
 the sun had struggled out, and shed its glory on 
 that lonely glen. At the foot of it we fed the 
 horse, and walked on before up the steep hill on 
 the road to Durness, a stretch of at least five 
 miles. The road skirted the old forest of Eeay, 
 but we were never out of the seemingly endless 
 region of whitefaced sheep. At five in the even- 
 ing the fishing village of Durness showed in the 
 distance, and we had travelled between forty and 
 fifty miles among the Sutherland mountains with- 
 out sighting either a red deer or an eagle. 
 
 Our driver, besides being a very intelligent lad, 
 had been employed in various capacities all over 
 the county. With great precision he pointed out 
 the marches, described the shooting -beats and 
 their tenants, knew the different proprietors, as
 
 THE WILDS OF SUTHERLAND. 243 
 
 well as the names of most of the hill-lochs or 
 mountain-streams. From constant yearly report 
 of the different shooting and fishing bags, he had 
 also formed a pretty shrewd guess of the sporting 
 capabilities of the land and water we skirted, as 
 well as of the sporting skill of those who rented 
 it. This forenoon he was more than usually 
 demonstrative at a fox's cairn close to the road. 
 A few years since he had been a hind on this 
 farm, and assisted at the night-watches for rey- 
 nard among these rocks, which, he assured us, 
 were catacombed for a hundred yards along the 
 mountain face. A short distance before, he 
 pointed out a precipice where his master the 
 farmer (" who had ower muckle whusky ") had 
 been pitched over with his gig. The horse and 
 gig were dashed to pieces, but the farmer was 
 miraculously thrown forward on a green mound, 
 and escaped with a slight bruise. 
 
 The bold rocks about half-way between Durness 
 and " the Cape" (Wrath) had attracted us to this 
 wild coast. They are the favoured resort of myr- 
 iads of sea-birds, including the white-tailed eagle. 
 " If ye had been here last week it wad hae been
 
 244 THE WILDS OF SUTHERLAND. 
 
 grand," said the weather-beaten coastman, " but 
 we daurna ventur in this easterly swell." 
 
 The cold dull " haar " seemed fairly set in, as 
 there was no change in the night, so we drove 
 down a distance of twenty miles to Scourie, where 
 the island of Handa, with its beetling cliffs, at- 
 tracts the same description of sea-fowl as the rocks 
 below Durness. 
 
 Although the swell on the outward and exposed 
 rocks of Handa would prevent our skirting them 
 unless the wind changed, still the old fisherman, 
 Macleod, assured us that the sheltered creek 
 and bays between Handa and the mainland often 
 attracted curious sea-birds. The old man was 
 familiar with the commoner sorts, had sometimes 
 noticed stormy petrels there, and casually men- 
 tioned what he called " sea-pigeons." We at first 
 thought he meant rock-doves ; but the bird he 
 meant had red feet, a red bill, and dived. Its 
 colour also was black, with a white patch on the 
 wing. The black guillemot, thought I; but then 
 the red bill. " Are you sure of the colour of this 
 bill?" He passed his word that it was bright as 
 vermilion.
 
 THE WILDS OF SUTHERLAND. 245 
 
 To secure this red-bill I eagerly ordered his 
 boat to be ready at nine next morning. " What 
 can that bird be?" I said so often during the 
 evening, that my son compared my curiosity to 
 that of the old Caithness laird, who never could 
 rest without knowing everything about everybody. 
 When travelling north with a friend, he stayed the 
 night at a small inn. " Ye'll be frae Caithness?" 
 says he to the maid -of -all -work. "No," rather 
 curtly. " Frae Sutherland, then ? " " No," a little 
 sulkily. " Ou, I hae't; ye're frae Koss-shire?" 
 " No," still. " Ye maun be frae the Mearns, 
 then ? " The " No " was nearly smothered by the 
 slamming of the door. All the evening the laird 
 was thoughtful and abstracted, and when he took 
 his candle to go to bed, made the earnest appeal 
 to his companion " Whar can that lassie be 
 frae?" 
 
 Macleod honestly told us that the sea-eagle 
 had not built on Handa last season, nor this, so 
 far as he knew. He gave their correct titles to 
 the common guillemots, razor-bills, puffins, cor- 
 morants green and black, &c., and was only a 
 little confused about the gulls. What, then, could
 
 246 THE WILDS OF SUTHEKLAND. 
 
 this sea-pigeon be ? If I could only get him to 
 give way on the carnation beak but catch him ! 
 
 The breeze had lulled, but it was still from the 
 east. The two boatmen, therefore, were still un- 
 able to say whether we could round the outer 
 rocks of Handa until they cleared the farthest 
 mainland cape. They then began to shake their 
 heads, " There was ower great a swell to gang 
 within shot o' the cliffs, but we might try the 
 landlocked creek and bays first, an' maybe it wad 
 moderate by the evenin'." The calm water, too, 
 was best for " sea-pigeons " and stormy petrels. 
 
 With slow pull the men crept -along the coast, 
 while, on rounding each peak into a fresh bay, 
 Macleod protested he had never " gaen ower sae 
 muckle water" without spying the mysterious 
 red-bill. At length my son asked for the tele- 
 scope, and on returning it carelessly remarked, 
 " There are a couple of black guillemots." Mac- 
 leod was alive in a moment " That's the sea- 
 pigeon." To satisfy him we rowed towards the 
 birds. One rose out of reach, and the other (a very 
 distant shot) was dropped by the JSTo. 4, its bill, to 
 our boatman's chagrin, black as ebony ! Unlike
 
 THE WILDS OF SUTHERLAND. 247 
 
 many of his superiors in birth and culture, this 
 poor Highlander's radiant freak of fancy was, 1 
 am convinced, neither premeditated nor wilful. 
 
 As the surf, in place of abating, was coming 
 in stronger, we gave up all hope of circling the 
 island. A landing on it was easily made, and we 
 proceeded to the erne's rock. The alarm shot only 
 brought out some rock-birds, but the eagle, as 
 Macleod suspected, had forsaken her eyrie. A 
 pair of peregrines used to nestle in the next cliff, 
 but they also had deserted their stronghold. 
 
 Man's persecution of these birds of prey must 
 have been constant and keen ere they could be 
 induced to desert spring quarters so abundantly 
 supplied with food for their nestlings. Within 
 shot were tier on tier and rank on rank of razor- 
 bills, guillemots, coulter-nebs, ranged like the de- 
 fenders of a beleaguered fortress. The crest of one 
 stack of detached rock rising abruptly from old 
 ocean had never been trodden by human foot. 
 Sunning themselves on this turf, a colony of lesser 
 black-backed gulls lay, or rolled about, in heed- 
 less, conscious security. On the sides were thou- 
 sands of cliff-birds so shockingly tame that 1
 
 248 THE WILDS OF SUTHERLAND. 
 
 desired Macleod to pitch a few stones to try to 
 enliven the dormant mass. At the second throw 
 he killed one, which dropped into the yawning 
 abyss, while only a few of its nearest neighbours 
 deigned to leave their perch. 
 
 On looking into the awful chasm, we distinctly 
 perceived the large green single egg on several of 
 the ledges, but only one pair of eggs, and these 
 were half the size of the others, and whitish- 
 coloured. 
 
 As we already possessed all the specimens we 
 noticed on and around Handa, the sail was soon 
 hoisted for Scourie, and in the afternoon and 
 evening a rugged drive through the mountains to 
 Inchnadamff completed a thoroughly enjoyable 
 day. 
 
 Near the top of an Assynt mountain we en- 
 countered a delightfully patriarchal " flitting." 
 As the steep road was also narrow, our driver 
 had to pull up in order to let the caravan pass, 
 so we had full time to admire its simple order 
 and discipline. First came two sons, each guiding 
 a pony and light cart loaded with beds and fur- 
 niture ; then one of the daughters leading the
 
 THE WILDS OF SUTHERLAND. 249 
 
 milch cow. Next came her sister, skilfully driv- 
 ing four sheep with the aid of their two collies. 
 The hale mother now trudged forward with a 
 hen in her apron. Lastly followed the patriarch, 
 like Jacob, with staff in hand, and at a sufficient 
 distance behind the procession to give him a good 
 view of the whole. There could not be a more 
 contented or healthy - looking family, and the 
 stately father, with his ruddy face browned by 
 the mountain blasts, was a noble type of the 
 Highland shepherd. 
 
 A half-way ferry and constant succession of 
 steep hills between Scourie and Inchnadamff, 
 lengthened the way so much that the long day 
 had faded into twilight ere we were housed for 
 the night. My former fishing - guide of Loch 
 Assynt, who was then the Duke's game-preserver, 
 is now landlord at Inchnadamff. If any one 
 could give a hint about a bird we have long 
 wished for, John Sutherland, our host, is the man. 
 
 We already possessed specimens of the great 
 northern diver, both in spring and winter plum- 
 age, also of the red-throat; but black-throated 
 divers, although pretty common in the northern
 
 250 THE WILDS OF SUTHERLAND. 
 
 lochs, are far more rare in the waters of the 
 central or western Highlands. When consulting 
 John about this bird, an open vehicle most oppor- 
 tunely drove up. This was the Duke's superin- 
 tendent of the Scourie division of Sutherland, 
 who had come down to Assynt to settle the 
 marches between the Sutherland and Tarbat 
 estates. 
 
 Mr M., with hearty Highland warmth, pro- 
 moted the object of our tour. He suggested 
 that Sutherland himself should accompany us to 
 a small loch where a pair of black-throats yearly 
 hatched, and we were, if possible, to shoot the 
 male, when the female, having only begun to lay, 
 would soon provide another mate. 
 
 Next morning we drove to this lochan, with 
 its prettily-wooded islets, on two of which Suther- 
 land proposed my son and I should lie in hiding 
 whilst he moved our quarry. 
 
 Snugly ensconced among the bushes of the two 
 mid islets, we soon perceived the pair emerge 
 from the reeds of the furthest bay, and John's 
 boat guiding them if possible to our cross -fire. 
 The creatures, of course, kept close together when
 
 THE WILDS OF SUTHERLAND. 251 
 
 taken in rear, and, coasting the mainland, seemed 
 inclined to shirk a passage between the islets. 
 This move forced me to change ground to the 
 opposite side of my island. I soon, however, saw 
 them cross over and make for the very passage 
 we had set them. Instantly regaining my first 
 ambush, I had a full view of the splendid birds. 
 In their gorgeous spring plumage their feathers 
 absolutely gleamed in the sunlight. Bounding 
 the point of my islet, they turned into the straits 
 between the guns. My son had seen me creep 
 away to the other side of my ambuscade, but was 
 too much occupied with the divers to notice my 
 return. He therefore thought that all depended 
 on his gun, however distant the chance. 
 
 The birds were almost within reach when both 
 dived, but soon came to the surface again, a near 
 shot from me, and consequently a far one from 
 him. A perceptible difference in size enabled 
 both of us to mark the male, and my duck-gun 
 had covered him, while my finger was just touch- 
 ing the trigger, when an opposite shot prostrated 
 him on the surface. My feeling at the moment 
 was like a person going down-stairs in the dark,
 
 252 THE WILDS OF SUTHERLAND. 
 
 and reaching the last step before he expected. 
 The object is gained sooner than intended, or even 
 wished ! 
 
 Unmixed pleasure at the brilliant prize floating 
 on the waters quickly followed ; and when Suther- 
 land rowed to land with the finest male specimen 
 I had ever seen of this most beautiful of all divers, 
 my content was complete. 
 
 Our landlord supplied us with a couple of 
 small rods, but none of the flies in our book were 
 " cut out " for this loch. In about two hours and 
 a half, however, we brought into the boat thirty 
 fine red trout, which were delicious at table. 
 With orthodox flies a hundred fish to each rod is 
 an average good day's work ; how sumptuously, 
 therefore, the black-throats must have fared every 
 day! 
 
 Next morning Mr M. gave a most graphic 
 account of his sport on the marches. Of course 
 he had a number of the aged natives as witnesses, 
 and some of these ancient Celts grew quite fierce 
 in their Gaelic disputes with each other. One 
 venerable Sutherland oracle frantically tottered 
 
 w 
 
 up to the arbitrator with " I wonder, sir, to see
 
 THE WILDS OF SUTHERLAND. 253 
 
 you allow Ross to beat Sutherland after this 
 fashion ! " 
 
 A most interesting and valuable map of the 
 county was shown us by Mr M. It was dis- 
 covered in Dunrobin Castle by the late Duke, 
 and is entirely finished by the pen. Ships 
 stand for the sea cattle, &c., represent land ; 
 and in addition to its topographical merits as a 
 map, the whole is executed with exquisite artistic 
 skill. 
 
 The drive from Inchnadamff to our first 
 starting-point, the inn of Ardgay, was chiefly 
 through Sir C. Ross's estates. This day, on a 
 lonely stretch of moorland, a sea- eagle crossed 
 our path. It kept long in view, and its wild and 
 Wayward wheels gave life and interest to a barren, 
 dreary tract. This was the first royal bird we 
 discovered during our tour ; and although the 
 course lay quite round the forest of Loch Stack, 
 the deer seem to have avoided the sheep-runs, 
 and kept strictly to their reserved ground. On 
 my last visit to this county nine years since, 
 although never beyond the bounds of sheep 
 pasturage, we noticed deer almost every day.
 
 254 THE WILDS OF SUTHEKLAND. 
 
 Reaching Ardgay about five P.M., we told the 
 landlord our intention of hiring on to Tain, in 
 order to try the sea estuaries, where we had 
 noticed some sheldrakes from the railway car- 
 riages the previous week. These creeks being 
 close to Tain, and the tide suiting, we were 
 anxious, if possible, to secure a male of this orna- 
 mented duck, still required to complete a case. 
 
 On explaining the plan to mine host, he 
 ordered out a fresh horse, quietly remarking, 
 " Now, sir, I am not going to charge you any- 
 thing for this hire." An honourable and spirited 
 fellow like this deserves to prosper in his calling. 
 
 The tide was three-quarters ebb when we 
 pulled up at the first bay, where, feeding among 
 the plashy sands and sea-ware, a sheldrake and 
 his mate were distinctly made out with the 
 telescope. As these birds are sometimes curious- 
 ly stupid and tame, my son was not without hope 
 of stalking them, even in such disadvantageous 
 ground. To our surprise they saved him the 
 trouble, by taking wing in a straight line for the 
 gun. On nearing, they shied off a little, and 
 crossed at the distance of about seventy yards.
 
 THE WILDS OF SUTHEELAND. 255 
 
 He fired, and the drake dropped nearly to the 
 gravel, then, recovering himself, separated from 
 his mate (which flew seaward), and laboured over 
 a corn-field, repassing the shooter a second time 
 at long distance was again hit, after which he 
 struggled round a landward height. 
 
 We quickly followed with the retriever, but 
 never came on his traces afterwards. No doubt 
 where he pitched, there he lay and died. We 
 saw no more of these ducks, and were chagrined 
 to lose so fine a bird, as the nut above his bill 
 was quite perceptible when he flew past, and 
 proved him to be in brightest spring feather. 
 
 Next morning we left Tain by the railway, 
 coming down for the first time the charming 
 route by Braemar, Kingussie, Eannoch, Blair- 
 Atholl, and Perth, reaching Glasgow in the 
 gloaming. 
 
 THE END.
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.