64 A HUNDRED YEARS 



single-barrelled flint gun. I fancy there are few now 

 living who can remember the use of flint guns, but I 

 am one of those who can, and this special gun invariably 

 misfired when some rare or interesting bird was shot at. 

 But this was not so much the case, I fancy, when my 

 grandfather and his sons all shot with flint " Joe 

 Mantons,'' because their flints worked better. 



It is interesting to note what there was to shoot in 

 those far-back days of my grandfather. Well, there were 

 grouse, but not too many, my father and his brothers 

 always going to Leacaidh, in the heights of Kenlochewe, 

 which was the best grouse ground then . There was nothing 

 like the number of grouse killed in the parish of Gairloch 

 in those days as in the seventies and eighties ; and there 

 were not so many deer either. But there were lots of 

 black game in the woods, and ptarmigan on the high 

 tops, and a good many partridges; and though there 

 were plenty of fine, fat brown hares all round the crofter 

 townships and wherever there was cultivation, there 

 were few blue hares to be found except as great rarities 

 on the summits of the highest hills. As for rabbits, 

 they were unknown in the county until my grand- 

 father introduced them to Conon from England. I 

 give my uncle's account of this introduction of the 

 bunny : 



" My father, alas ! sent for rabbits to England. In 

 due time they arrived, having finished every turnip 

 with which they had started and seemingly none the 

 worse of their travels — the darling lovely little pets ! 

 Our minds were distracted wondering how best we could 

 protect them from the nasty, greedy foxes. We carried 



