236 "THE MOOR AND THE LOCH" 



down to their eyries among almost inaccessible preci- 

 pices. The mountain-fox still holds his own among 

 the cairns and the rifts of the rocks on the summits of 

 the loftier hills ; but the wild cat and the marten have 

 well-nigh disappeared. Even the badger and the otter 

 have been dying out in the Lowlands, though happily 

 there is still sport for the shaggy water-hounds in the 

 quiet pools and among the cataracts of many a wood- 

 land stream. It is true that we have gains to set against 

 the losses. The graceful roes have increased with the 

 spreading plantations, though very greatly to the injury 

 of the woods ; and the capercailzie, introduced by the 

 late Lord Breadalbane, has spread far and wide through 

 the pine-forests of Perthshire. And Mr. Colquhoun 

 can tell how, when shooting as a boy on the Arrochar 

 hills, he made acquaintance with one of the forerunners 

 of these alpine hares which swarm now in Glenfalloch 

 and Glen Fruin, and indeed, breed rabbit-like or rat- 

 like all over the Highlands. 



Few are so fortunate as the author of " The Moor 

 and the Loch " in having been brought up in a sylvan 

 paradise. The picturesque domains of his ancient 

 family stretch along the banks of Loch Lomond ; 

 within easy reach of their mansion of Rossdhu were 

 the remains of their forests of the Lennox and Ben 

 Cruachan ; and between it and the many arms of the 

 sea that wind up into the western coast from the 

 Atlantic is a jumble of hill and wood and heather. 

 Long ago, on a memorable occasion, we ourselves 

 shot along the broken banks that look across to that 



