CAITHNESS. 67 



These notes are collected from a statement made 

 by Donald Ross for the present Duke of Portland, 

 to whose kind courtesy I am indebted for them 

 and all else I have to say about this forest. 



Donald Ross came to Langwell as gamekeeper 

 in 1848, the estate then belonging to Mr. Donald 

 Home. As Ross naively observes, gamekeepers in 

 the north at that period were not so numerous as 

 at present, and one man would often be expected 

 to look after 40,000 acres of ground, and Donald 

 himself well exemplifies how that one man with 

 his heart in his work can accomplish wonders. 



In 1848 pole-cats, now quite extinct, were plentiful 

 in Langwell ; wild cats abounded, and these, if not 

 quite done away with, are so nearly gone that the 

 capture of one is quite a remarkable event. At 

 these vermin Donald went with a will, for during the 

 first year of his service he destroyed fifty pole-cats, 

 twenty-eight wild cats, five foxes, two otters, one mar- 

 ten cat, and over two hundred weasels, together with 

 a number of ravens, " hoodies," harriers, falcons, and 



