60 THE DEER FORESTS OF SCOTLAND. 



birch, Scotch fir and larch plantation affords splendid 

 wintering. 



Grey cloth is best suited to the ground. The highest 

 hill is the well-known Goatfell, 2,866 feet, or the 

 hill of the wind. No driving is done, and the average 

 kill is 45 stags, with a mean weight of 17. stone 

 4 lbs., heart and liver included. Having started his 

 forest in February, 1859, the late Duke, whom I 

 had the pleasure of knowing for many years, and 

 who was a fine rifle shot, commenced stalking in 

 1862, and up to 1880 he killed many very big 

 stags, of which the heaviest weighed 29 stone 8 lbs. 

 From that date both heads and bodies began to get 

 smaller, and since then fresh blood has been introduced 

 on nine different occasions. John Mackenzie, the 

 head forester, has been in Arran with the late Duke 

 for over thirty years, and he relates that prior to 

 1879 there had not been an eagle's nest in the 

 island for many a day, when in that year a pair 

 returned to nest on Goatfell, and since that 

 date there has always been one or two pair, 



