IN THE HIGHLAJ^DS 69 



his footing, fell to the bottom of the rock, and broke 

 his leg. Had not some tourists visited the rock two 

 days afterwards he would have lain and died where 

 he fell. 



A fox was lately found dead and quite fresh on an 

 island in one of the lochs on my own property. There 

 was no doubt that, though foxes are not fond of water, 

 this one had made the island his home during the daytime. 

 On his way back after a night's ramble he had eaten an 

 egg containing strychnine, and had only just managed 

 to swim over to the island when he dropped down dead. 



I soon became a good shot with my little gun, though 

 it weighed only three pounds, and, strange to say, I 

 started on snipe. Of course I could not kill them flying, 

 but to help me there came a very severe snowstorm 

 and hard frost, and whilst the grown-ups were shooting 

 woodcocks in the coverts my tutor and I went snipe- 

 shooting at the few streams and springs which were still 

 open. I had very good eyes, but my tutor's eyes were 

 even better, and he could generally see the snipe squatted 

 among the dead grass and bits of ice, and he would call 

 out, " Shoot two inches to the right of that red leaf," 

 or " three inches to the left of that black stone," and 

 as soon as the smoke had disappeared (and there was 

 a lot of smoke in those days of black powder) there would 

 be a dead full-snipe or jack-snipe, and very occasionally 

 a woodcock. In this manner I got fifty or sixty snipe 

 in a week, which I was proud of being able to send to 

 friends in England. Before I grew old enough to use 

 a big double-barrelled " Dickson " I did perfect wonders- 

 with my little three-pounder, and was the cause of the 



