IN THE HIGHLANDS 65 



the hamper to some sandy banks in Dugarry, and, as the 

 rabbits might weary if left to dig holes for themselves, 

 busy hands and spades soon built up twenty or thirty 

 foot refuges of turf, like six-inch square drains, at the 

 end of which, if they pleased, they might in due time 

 dig holes for themselves. To our great joy, the dear 

 little innocents every morning showed plenty of new 

 holes dug, so that they soon were safe from their enemies. 

 In a very short time we found troops of little bunnies 

 trotting about, so that one or two were shot as samples 

 of such a wise investment in game . This took place over 

 seventy years ago, and from this colony the whole north 

 is now swarming with the pests. And yet I have never 

 heard of anyone, planter, farmer, or gardener, who has 

 suggested a monument to my father for conferring such a 

 benefit on the Highlands \" 



There was so much vermin in those days that the so- 

 called gamekeepers were in reality only game-killers, and 

 vermin trappers were only just then being started. In 

 the old times all the lairds had in that line was a sealgair 

 (hunter) who provided their big houses with venison 

 and other game ; for, until my father and uncles started 

 stalking, not a Gairloch laird had ever troubled himself 

 to kill deer either for sport or for the larder. The vermin 

 consisted of all kinds of beasts and birds, a good many 

 of which are now extinct . The fork-tailed kites swarmed, 

 and I have heard that the first massacre of them that 

 took place was when my father poisoned with strychnine 

 the dead body of a young horse which had been killed 

 by falling over a rock on Creag a Chait (the Cat's Rock), 



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