i8 2 WILD LIFE OF SCOTLAND 



And all this is compatible with an ardent love 

 for the surroundings. Without this, animal life, 

 and all wild sport lose half their attraction. Indeed, 

 there is little left now except the background. Whose 

 mind does not revert to the pictures of Landseer ? 



" Deer-stalking with the Sutherland Highlander," 

 says St. John, " seems an almost invincible passion. 

 His constant thoughts and dreams are about the 

 mountain corrie, and the stag. He points out to 

 you with admiration the very mountain slope, the 

 very corries, that you had already marked down in 

 your mind as surpassingly grand. At first you 

 may think him a reserved, and rather morose man ; 

 but when he finds that you are not only a brother 

 of the craft, but also a fervent admirer of the 

 natural beauties of his favourite lochs, and corries, 

 his expression of face alters ; he takes you under 

 his protection, and leads you to points of view 

 which you would have travelled fifty miles to see. 

 Mercenary and greedy as, I am sorry to say, 

 Highlanders in many parts of the country have 

 become, I did not find this the case in Sutherland." 



This is to be a sportsman, and this is what we 

 look for, and look for in vain, in the modern 

 devotees of the art. What we get instead is an 

 absence of enthusiasm for the wilds, an absence of 



