DESTRUCTIVE FOXES ON BEN LAIGHAL. 47 



impenetrable to .the sight. For a long time we sat down 

 under my plaid, which kept us tolerably dry (L) unbar, myself, 

 and the dog) ; with nothing else to enliven us except 

 watching the curious antics of two ravens on a great lump of 

 rock in front of us. At last, in despair, we made our way 

 home, as quickly as we could, splashing through the rain- 

 water which had converted the whole hill-side into pools. 

 Near the loch-side, amongst the birch trees, I saw a great 

 many red-polls and other small birds. 



From Aultnaharrow we drove again to Loch Maddie, 

 where I caught some fine trout. We saw a few Grey lag 

 geese, and found the grey crows again tenanting the nests 

 which we had attacked three or four weeks ago. Of course 

 I smashed every egg and killed every crow that came within 

 my reach. 



On the 10th of June the frost was so severe in Strath 

 Xaver, that it cut down all the potatoes to the ground, and 

 even the ferns and some other wild plants near the waterside 

 were entirely blackened. A hard white frost at this season 

 is always supposed to be followed by heavy rain, and the 

 saying was this time quite correct. 



On our road to Tongue the following day I stopped for an 

 hour or two about Loch Laighal, one of the most beautiful of 

 the lakes in Sutherland. lien Laighal is a fine and picturesque 

 mountain, and of great extent. We learned at a shepherd's 

 house that the fox-hunter of that district had been up on 

 the mountain since three o'clock in pursuit of some foxes 

 who had established themselves in the rocky corries near the 

 summit, and had commenced killing the old sheep. It is not 

 the general custom of foxes to destroy the old and full-grown 

 sheep where lambs are plentiful ; but a colony or pair of 

 foxes having once commenced this habit, the mischief and 

 havoc which they commit are beyond calculation, more 

 particularly as they seldom tear or eat much of so large an 

 animal, but feed on the blood. According to the accounts of the 

 shepherds the foxes of Ben Laighal are very prone to this kind 

 of prey, and kill the old sheep in preference to lambs or game. 



The foxes in the Highland districts must frequently be 

 put to many shifts for their living, and no doubt become 

 proportionally cunning. To keep himself in the fine and 

 sleek condition in which a fox always is, many a trick and 

 ruse de guerre of surpassing cleverness must be practised. 

 The stories of their manoeuvres to catch animals are endless ; 



