230 "THE MOOR AND THE LOCH" 



shooting wildly ; and altogether there was great reason 

 for thankfulness in the introduction of the swift and 

 simple breech-loader. 



Having said so much in favour of modern inno- 

 vations, we can go back to our grumbling with an 

 easier conscience. Sixty years ago there was genuine 

 wild sport, and a man of moderate means and agree- 

 able manners was made welcome to more shooting 

 than he could overtake, and could pick and choose 

 among his many invitations. There were no pro- 

 fessional agents in Perth and Inverness to negotiate 

 fabulous rents for the moors and the forests. Indeed, 

 strictly speaking, there were no deer-forests at all, if 

 the idea of a forest implies solitude and a sanctuary. 

 The smoke curled up in the remotest straths from the 

 straw-bound chimneys of the hovels and hamlets that 

 were teeming with human and canine life. There were 

 herds of black cattle ranging the hills, and groups of 

 sheep grazing in the corries, and hoary patriarchs and 

 witch-like old women were out with their " shelties " 

 cutting the peat or fetching it from the neighbouring 

 bogs. Here and there in some out-of-the-way den among 

 the rocks, that might have sheltered caterans in more 

 lawless times, one of the " sma' stills " was in cheerful 

 activity. The red deer had to shift as they best could, 

 and to run their chance with the other fera nature. 

 Duncan, though he might have a profound reverence 

 for the chief, would make many a quiet stalk on his 

 deer in the gloaming ; and Dugald would lie in ambush 

 for them in his patch of oats, ready to empty his charge 



