THE SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDER. 93 



comes round to deer and deer-stalking. He has stories with- 

 out end, handed down from father to son, of wonderful shots, 

 and dogs that never failed to pull down their stag. On most 

 points silent and reserved, on this one he is talkative and 

 eloquent. No man, too, has a greater taste for, and a more 

 correct conception of the beauties of nature : he points out 

 to you with admiration the very mountain slope, the very 

 corrie that you have 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 out 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 

 heart opens, and he will go through fire or water to serve 

 you : 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 ; and, in fact, enters into all 

 your wishes and thoughts with tact and eager desire to please 

 you. Mercenary and greedy as, I am sorry to say, High- 

 landers in many parts of the country have become, I did not 

 find this the case in Sutherland. The shootings not having 

 been let much, the country-people are not yet spoiled, but 

 still retain in a great measure the natural good feeling, the 

 air of high-bred civility of which most mountaineers have a 

 far greater share than men of the same rank of life brought 

 up in the lowlands. 



Though a Highland deer-stalker may sometimes break 

 loose and have a day's bout at whisky, he is not, generally 

 speaking, at all an intemperate man : two weaknesses he 

 may have snuff and smoke ; the mull, with its spoon of 

 wood or eagle's quill (that not a grain may be lost), and the 

 well-smoked and short clay-pipe, are his constant companions. 

 If he misses his stag after a severe stalk, he takes a few 

 whiffs to console himself : if he succeeds, and has his 

 hand already on the prostrate body of the object of his pur- 

 suit, the pipe comes into play. The first thing in the 

 morning, while looking from the shealing door to see which 

 way the wind blows, there is the pipe between his teeth ; 

 and when returning from his day's work, he smokes the pipe 

 of retrospection, while he calls to mind all the different hits 

 and failures of the pursuit. Having reached home, fed him- 

 self and dogs, and had his moderate allowance of whisky, 

 twenty to one but he walks out, pipe in mouth, to see which 

 way the clouds are drifting, so as to speculate on the weather 



