90 



good " corries " or hollows, wherein the deer may 

 conceal themselves, in the latter. I had wandered 

 considerably in forest gronnd, and formed my own 

 impressions of its nature and characteristics, before I 

 compared notes with friends whose occupations took 

 them into these regions, and I found that their im- 

 pressions and feelings were the same as mine — that 

 the first characteristic of a deer forest, if you go into 

 it alone and wander about all da}% is the absobite deso- 

 lation. Commonly you do not see the deer — they ma}^ 

 see you, or more likely get your scent and be off — and 

 birds may be conspicuous by their absence. I used to 

 go fishing in the sanctuary of a well-known forest in 

 south-western Ross Shire ; and never once when I went 

 there alone, did I see a deer or a bird of any kind. 

 The only living creatures I saw were the dog that 

 accompanied me, the trout I caught, and the midges 

 that came and bit me. Nevertheless, I saw much of 

 interest at one time and another, and as our members 

 may care to hear about it I have recorded some of ni}^ 

 observations. 



The first forest I got to know well, was that of 

 Coulin, in Wester Ross, and this forest was one of the 

 exceptions, inasmuch as it had some actual old Cale- 

 donian Forest left on it. Caledonian Forest appears 

 to have been composed principally of Scotch Firs, 

 but at the sides of the lochs that are so numerous 

 in the Highlands, the firs were replaced by birch 

 wood. Here at Coulin were both fir and birch, and in 

 the latter numerous Cuckoos were to be heard. No- 

 where in England, much less in Scotland, have I found 

 Cuckoos so common, and why they should be common 

 in a comparatively small patch of woodland, set 

 amidst frowning mountains, I cannot make out, for 

 there was no other woodland for miles around ; and 

 the small birds, excepting the Pipit, on which the 

 Cuckoo is ordinarily parasitic, were not to be seen. 



