236 TOUR IN SUTHERLANDSHIRE. 



experience, hoping that some of my readers may profit by 

 them. In all matters of this sort I consider that much more 

 information is gained by the reader, if an author is content 

 simply to mark down ascertained facts. If too much 

 decision is assumed, and mere hearsay assertions are put 

 down as "facts " if he lays down as general rules what may 

 be applicable only to particular cases perhaps solely to his 

 own, an author will on this subject, as on most others, do 

 more harm than good. " Quot homines, tot sententice ; " and 

 although half of what I write may probably not meet the 

 ideas of many of my readers, I offer it all, leaving it to every 

 one to extract what is applicable to his own pursuits, and 

 hoping that there may be few who will not find some hint or 

 other, or some chance bit of information which may aid them 

 in their amusements. 



Amongst the mass of books written on subjects of natural 

 history, it is curious to see the numberless errors committed, 

 and the false inferences drawn, by superficial observers, or 

 by persons who set down as facts not merely what they 

 actually see, but what they fancy must or ought to be ; and 

 who describe as ascertained facts things of which they know 

 nothing more than that they seem to be possible, and may 

 be probable. This is a system of writing which cannot 

 be sufficiently reprobated, as tending to establish most 

 erroneous and mistaken ideas. Every student of nature and 

 of the habits and manners of living creatures, even of those 

 which are apparently the most insignificant and uninteresting, 

 must know that the truest facts concerning them are often 

 much more marvellous than anything he would dare to 

 invent ; and that a writer on such subjects, who wishes to 

 embellish his book with startling and surprising anecdotes, 

 will best attain his object by sticking closely to the plain 

 reality. 



It is an old, and oft-repeated, saying, that "Truth is 

 stranger than fiction ; " and it is especially so in treating of 

 Nature and her productions, whether we direct our attention 

 to animals of the largest size, and highest order of intelligence 

 and instinct, or to the equally astonishing habits and means 

 of living displayed by the smallest insects and reptiles. 



