8 WILD LIFE OF SCOTLAND 



Argyllshire. The neat, well-set-on horns, black 

 muzzle, snowy hide, and clean - made limbs, 

 guaranteed both the antiquity and the purity of 

 the breed. Doubtless, this little group would now 

 be sought for in vain. 



It chanced, that in the very scenes where the 

 exiles reappeared for a brief while, the forests of 

 Perthshire and Aberdeen, and not above a decade 

 from the death of the last reindeer say 1810 

 another was added to the existing motives for 

 destruction ; and, soon after, a havoc began, which 

 threatens, not only permanently to unsettle the 

 balance of life, but even to defeat the very end 

 in view. Never, perhaps, was there a more 

 striking instance of short-sightedness. 



Such is the present somewhat transition state 

 of the wild life of Scotland. What the future may 

 be depends a good deal on our action now. 



There will be differences of opinion as to the 

 advisability of remitting the banishment of certain 

 children of the wilds. While, among my corre- 

 spondents, some are in favour of one form, to the 

 exclusion of the rest ; others shake their heads over 

 the whole matter. "We cannot afford to grow 

 wood for beavers to gnaw, or for boars to whet 

 their tusks on," 



