1 86 WILD LIFE OF SCOTLAND 



in the bareness of their aspect. Those with which 

 I am best acquainted are rough and untamable 

 glens, whose sides are scarred by the mountain 

 torrents, whose bottoms are uneven with tumbled 

 rocks; overgrown with the rough grasses, which 

 afford the coarse and not always nutritious grazing. 



One advantage, if such it be, is to give the choice 

 of the season to the sportsman, not to the deer. 

 Where there is extensive cover, the stag must 

 declare its whereabouts before shooting is possible ; 

 which it refuses to do until the rutting season 

 in October. Therefore stalking, or whatever other 

 form sport may assume in Scotland, occurs in the 

 pleasant days of August, instead of the uncertain 

 weather of the later months. Who would care to 

 come when the hills are mist-capped; when the dry 

 channels furrowing the slopes are streaked with 

 tumbling water ; and the glen burns are in brown 

 spate ? 



Under the ragged patches of birch, fir, and larch, 

 the teeming herds gather, thus intensifying the 

 evils of overcrowding, and hastening on the deteri- 

 oration. December hind-shooting has been adopted, 

 with a view of thinning out the herds, and so 

 mitigating the evil. And he who cares to join in 

 the slaughter, has a chance of seeing what the 



