88 TOUR IN SUTHERLANDSHIRE. 



forest takes in corrie after come, and mountain after moun- 

 tain, of the most wild and romantic character. Fitted, too, 

 for scarcely any other purpose than as a refuse for wild 

 animals, the most determined utilitarian could not say that 

 the ground was wasted, nor suggest a better use to which to 

 .apply it. It is far too barren to make sheep farming re- 

 munerative, and any other way of attempting to make the 

 mountains in that district useful to mankind would be labour 

 thrown away. 



In this fine range the red-desr daily increase in number ; 

 so much so, that I have no doubt that, unless they are 

 systematically shot down, they will, in the course of some 

 few years, degenerate in size and beauty from the ground 

 being overstocked ; for, although there is plenty of room in 

 the surrounding wild mountains for the deer to distribute 

 and disperse themselves, still so much do they dislike being 

 disturbed, and so determinedly do they adhere to the forests 

 where neither sheep nor shepherds annoy them, that while 

 these quiet places are overstocked, the deer are almost 

 wholy drained out of all the surrounding mountains. I 

 speak here only comparatively, for of course red-deer are to 

 be found almost everywhere throughout the county ; still all 

 the sheep-farms have far fewer deer on them than they had 

 before the forest was made, notwithstanding that the number 

 of these animals is probably greater on the whole than it was 

 then. Certain slopes and hill-sides even close to the main 

 road are never without deer, and the passer by seldom travels 

 many miles without seeing some of these noble animals. 

 They seem used to the sight of people on the road (although 

 so few do travel by it) ; and on a carriage corning into sight 

 the stag scarcely stops his feeding for a longer time than is 

 sufficient for him to take a good gaze at his natural 

 enemy, when he again continues his rapid grazing, although 

 perhaps not much more than a rifle-shot from the road-side. 

 In the middle of the day the deer are seldom to be seen 

 except by a practised eye, as they are then at rest and lying 

 quietly, with little more than their head and neck above the 

 rough heath. In the early morning or towards evening they 

 feed downwards towards the grassy sides of the rivers and 

 burns. In very hot weather the stags, tormented by midges 

 and. flies on the lower grounds, keep on the high mountains 

 and ridges, where they have the advantage of every cool 

 breeze that blows. Hardy as he naturally must be, the stag 



