xxiv PREFACE. 



one of the most wild and beautiful parts of Suther- 

 land. For over thirty years the Duke has been 

 the renter from the Duke of Sutherland of four 

 forests rolled into one, namely, Lochmore, Stack, 

 Ben Hee, and Gobernuisgach, or the whole tract of 

 ground once known as " Lord Reay's country ; " and 

 I doubt if any gentleman has a better knowledge of 

 deer and forest management generally, and this, com- 

 bined with an almost too chivalrous regard for the 

 deer themselves (for from the moment a stag roars 

 at Lochmore he is safe from the rifle, and stalking is 

 discontinued some time in the first week of October), 

 has ended in producing an average yearly kill over 

 the whole ground of nearly two hundred of the 

 heaviest-bodied stags to be heard of in Scotland. 



