m THE HIGHLANDS 119 



to give up the setters. My gamekeeper and faithful 

 friend and companion, John Matheson, who was such a 

 wonderful dog-breaker, had, alas ! died, and it was 

 impossible to get food for a kennel of dogs during the 

 war, while the grouse had decreased greatly in number. 



Among the first litter I had from the Altyre bitch 

 was one jet black pup, " Fan." She and I were in- 

 separable friends during the fifteen best years of my life, 

 and it would fill a book if I attempted to describe what 

 she did for me, and what marvellous powers of reasoning 

 she had in that dear old head of hers. There really 

 seemed to be nothing in the way of sport that Fan was 

 not up to. Although she was not a " show " dog, not 

 being quite correct, it was much more interesting to be 

 out with her than with any other dog I have ever seen 

 or possessed. 



About the time Fan made her debut. Lord St. John of 

 Bletsoe (who was my brother's shooting tenant at 

 Gairloch) very kindly gave me the winter shooting of 

 those twenty-five lovely islands in Loch Maree, the 

 very place for Fan to show ofE — in fact, it was the islands 

 that taught her so many of her clever tricks. With the 

 exception of parts of Eilean Suthainn, the islands were 

 more or less covered with trees, but they also had some 

 open spaces with heather where grouse came in for 

 shelter from the neighbouring deer-forests in wild 

 weather in November and December. There were a 

 good many black game and woodcock, and just enough 

 roe and wild ducks and geese, and even wild swans, 

 to raise one's expectations and make it exciting; indeed, 

 I did get one wild swan on a long shallow loch on Eilean 



