IN THE HIGHLANDS 117 



Lodge, which was then tenanted by a friend of ours, a 

 Mr. Gilbert Mitchell Innes — Uilleam and I crossed the 

 hills by way of Carnmor, Strath na Sealg, and Dun- 

 donnell — a very long wild walk it was — and I spent the 

 night with my friends, leaving again in the morning, 

 accompanied by the Foich keeper and two pointers, 

 which he was to show off to us. 



They were of an unusual colour for pointers — viz., 

 black and tan — and we found any amount of grouse as we 

 went along, though I believe they are all but extinct 

 there now. We made a bee-line for home, crossing the 

 dreary high-road to Dundonnell, where there used to 

 be a tiny wayside pub., well known by its Gaelic name 

 of Tigh Osda na feithean mora (the Inn of the Great 

 Swamps). The dogs behaved well, and I decided to buy 

 them, but we already perceived that they would be 

 very determined about returning to their homes with 

 the keeper, and would refuse even to be dragged in the 

 contrary direction by us. Eoss, the keeper, however, 

 was a match for them; he asked us to hold them and 

 stay where we were, giving him a quarter of an hour^s 

 start; then he walked straight ahead as if making for 

 Poole we, and as soon as he got well out of sight over 

 a top, he slipped round, and returned to the big strath 

 of Loch Broom. Then we started, the dogs always 

 thinking Ross was in front of them, and, straining on 

 their couples, they dragged Uilleam, who held them, 

 all the way back to Pool House. They proved useful 

 dogs, were as hard as nails, and never got tired or gave 

 in, but they required constant flogging, as nothing could 

 ever cure them of running hares or of quarrelling and 



