88 FIELD AND FERN. 



the grass, and therefore fatal to the growth of the 

 heads ; but still Mr. Snowie had plenty of bright 

 antler memories to fall back upon, The Reay Forest 

 in Sutherland has furnished his finest specimen of 

 Caber Slatches, or antlers without tines. A head, 

 which he once prepared for Mr. Campbell of Men- 

 zies, had, it is true, only fourteen tines., but the 

 length, span, and thickness of the antlers (which 

 were all covered with indentations, as if the stags 

 had gnawed their comrade while he lay dead for a day 

 or two in the forest) earned a special mention from 

 him. Perhaps the most remarkable of Colin' s handi- 

 work is in the Marquis of Londonderry's collection ; 

 it has eighteen tines, and each of the brow antlers is 

 not only double the usual length, but, after shooting 

 in front of the head, bends backwards towards the 

 neck. 



A 291b. trout, caught on the Ness, but, as Mr. 

 Snowie says, "not in a very out-and-out sort of way" 

 takes our eye among the eagles and ospreys in the 

 front shop, and reminds us that we might as well 

 take a stroll up to the Loch. It was, however, a 

 bootless errand, as we saw nothing but some very 

 beautiful rock tints. We had no earthly intention 

 of wandering off to Lochiel and Lochaber, to see 

 if the Cheviot is holding his ground after " the 

 Siberian sixty/' and we were quite ready to take 

 it for granted that on the top of Ben Nevis there 

 is not vegetation enough even for a black-face. So 

 we halted a day or two at Laggan Cottage, and when 



