256 THE DEER FORESTS OF SCOTLAND. 



otters, are still in Braemore, but all three of the 

 former animals have become very rare. 



The hedgehog is quite a recent visitor, and is 

 supposed to have been imported in baled hay ; 

 foxes, as in other forests, are much too numerous, 

 the annual kill of old and young being some fifty. 

 Then coming down to " small deer," the natives 

 assert that the old British black rat still exists, an 

 animal much to be preferred to his ordinary brother 

 of every-day life. In January, 1892, Braemore and 

 the adjacent county was visited by a flood, scarcely 

 less destructive to roads, bridges, and river-beds than 

 the great Morayshire flood of 1829, so vividly described 

 by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder. On January 2nd snow 

 began to fall in the Braemore district, and continuing 

 nearly incessantly until the 8th, an average depth of 

 nearly two feet was accumulated, while the drifts on 

 the hills and in the valleys were of course of a far 

 greater profundity ; all wheeled traffic became entirely 

 suspended, and the mails were carried on horseback. 

 On the 1 6th a gentle thaw set in, continuing 



