302 TOUR IN SUTHERLANDSHIRE. 



season after the hill has been burnt, and nothing so perfectly 

 suits the grouse as these patches. Short as the heather is, it 

 is a region of abundance to these birds ; and in rainy weather 

 they take to the bare spots to escape the wet dropping off 

 the higher and older plants. 



Sheep, if allowed to do so, will feed so constantly on the 

 newly-burnt heather as entirely to prevent its growing ; and 

 it is therefore necessary to keep them off for a certain time to 

 prevent this evil. It happens frequently that by burning the 

 heather when it is too dry, or owing to some carelessness on 

 the part of the shepherd, the fire gets such power that it 

 cannot be checked when required, and thus much damage is 

 done, miles of hill are laid bare at once, and the advantage of 

 having a constant succession of food coming on is lost. When 

 once the fire becomes thus powerful, nothing stops it except- . 

 ing heavy rain, or the accident of its burning in the direction 

 of some stream wide enough to form a check to the devouring 

 element. Plantations of considerable extent are sometimes 

 burnt. In Strathspey this year (1848) a great loss occurred 

 from this cause. Heather for miles in extent was burnt, and 

 nearly a hundred acres of fine plantation were destroyed 

 before the fire could be checked a miniature imitation, in 

 short, of the prairie burnings of the far West. A large 

 heather-burning on a hill-side has a most picturesque ap- 

 pearance on a dark night, as the flames dance rapidly along 

 the slopes, making the surrounding darkness appear still more 

 deep. When the burnings occur too late in the season, and 

 during the time that the grouse and black game have eggs, 

 great destruction takes place, not of the eggs only, but of the 

 parent birds ; whereas judicious burning is advantageous 

 equally to the sheep farmer and the grouse shooter, the same 

 succession of heather of different ages being requisite for the 

 well-being of both sheep and game. 



The wild enemies of sheep in Scotland are daily and rapidly 

 decreasing. A very few years ago, the sheep farmer sustained 

 great loss from foxes, eagles, ravens, &c. : even the common 

 grey crow will take to killing the new-born lambs, pecking out 

 their eyes as soon as the little animals are dropped, and, if not 

 killing them on the spot, leaving them to perish miserably. 

 The foxes on some of the more inaccessible mountains still 

 keep their ground, and in the lambing season do an immensity 

 of damage, for this animal has the destructive inclination to 

 kill not only as many as she requires for the food of her young 



