IN THE HIGHLANDS 183 



in the very heart of what is now the Kenlochewe deer- 

 forest, and there they lived on the milk of the heifer and 

 venison. A deer would be killed from time to time, but 

 not very often, as they were scarce in those days, and 

 the venison would be hung up in the spray of a great 

 waterfall, which entirely prevented any blue flies getting 

 at it. Thus they spent five or six months, the happiest, 

 they always declared, they ever spent in their lives, till 

 the corn and potatoes ripened down in the glen in 

 October, when they returned to their home in Ken- 

 lochewe. 



I once asked an old man, Ali Dubh, who used to work 

 for me, and who as a boy was often with grandparents 

 living in one of the inland crofter townships of the parish 

 of Gairloch, whether they did not sometimes suffer great 

 hardships and hunger. His answer was as follows: 

 " Oh, sometimes we had plenty. I remember one year 

 when there was a terrible snow-storm early in the winter 

 before Martinmas, and all the tenants' stock of goats 

 were smothered at Meallan nan Gabhar. That year 

 we had salted goat and smoked goat hams right on till 

 near Whit-Sunday." " And what about the following 

 years V 1 asked him. " Oh, indeed, it was many a long 

 year before the tenants had meat, as it took so long to 

 get up a stock of goats again." 



