The Country Gentleman s Magazine 



299 



DEER DRIVING IN MULL. 



BY THE SPORTING CONTRIBUTOR OF " THE FARMER." 

 " Hunts he Bentalla's nimble 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 branch- 

 ing 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 shew 

 themselves on the bare hill, where they may 

 be chased by a colhe dog, or " potted " by its 

 master's " swan post," and 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, the truant " Lord of the Isles's," 

 hunting-ground, rising between. The Scalas- 

 tal 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 fami and farm-house, 

 turning my shepherds into game-preservers, 

 and training their sheep-dogs to run the 

 deer. 



Glenforsa, the other shooting quarter, was 

 situated on the opposite side of the island. 

 In addition 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, espe- 

 cially if the deer were much frightened and 

 the Avind favourable, they were apt to cross 

 Bentalla to the other. So after a hunt at 

 Scalastal, we v/ere 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 the Glenforsa allowance. A like 

 number of hinds of Scalastal, but they were 

 not so strict about the harts. These restric- 

 tions seldom annoy the man who kills his 

 full complement, but they are most disgust- 

 ing to a party who, at the close of a season, 

 are far below the figure it was thus plainly- 

 intimated 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 resi- 

 dent 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 Glen- 

 forsa deer until my return, and he had kept 

 strictly to small game at Scalastal. Two days 

 before I was expected 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-GauI, 

 with the river Knock flowing through it, is a 

 detached strip of plantation much liked by 

 deer, and, if undisturbed, seldom without 

 them. "\Mien 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 Tor- 

 lochan wood, they slip out from the middle 

 of the plantation, running east over a bare 



