WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



hours afterwards. Going in large bodies on well-preserved 

 ground, these men defy the keepers, and shoot in spite of 

 them. If pursued by a party stronger than themselves, 

 they halt occasionally, and fire bullets either over the 

 heads of their pursuers or into the ground near them, of 

 course taking care not to hurt them. The keepers go home, 

 protesting that they have been fired upon and nearly killed, 

 while the Highlanders pursue their sport. The grand ob- 

 ject of the poachers being to keep out of the fangs of the 

 law, they never uselessly run the risk of being identified, 

 and although they frequently have licences, they always 

 avoid showing them if possible, in order that their names 

 may not be known. If they shoot on ground where the 

 watchers know them, they take great care to avoid being 

 seen. If they think there is any likelihood of a prosecution 

 occurring, they betake themselves to a different part of 

 the country till the storm is blown over. In some of the 

 wide mountain districts, a band of poachers can shoot the 

 whole season without being caught, and I fancy that many 

 of the keepers, and even their masters, rather wish to shut 

 their eyes to the trespassing of these gangs as long as they 

 keep to certain districts.anddo not interfere with thoseparts 

 of thegrouse-groundwhicharethemost carefully preserved. 

 Some proprietors or lessees of shooting-grounds make 

 a kind of half compromise with the poachers, by allowing 

 them to kill grouse as long as they do not touch the deer; 

 others, who are grouse-shooters, let them kill the deer to 

 save their birds. I have known an instance where a prosec- 

 ution was stopped by the aggrieved party being quietly 

 made to understand, that if it was carried on, "a score of 



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