278 THE DEER FORESTS OF SCOTLAND. 



while secondly, owing to the fact of a number 

 of novices at stalking, not all very young, having 

 been visitors to Flowerdale, a lot of small beasts have 

 been knocked over in the unrestrained ardour of the 

 new hand, backed up by a kindly desire on the part 

 of the more experienced "to blood" the novitiate and 

 make him a stalker for the rest of his days. At one 

 end of the ground, on the shore of Loch-na-h'Oidhche, 

 " lake of the night," which holds heavy brown 

 trout, there is a fairly good bothy for the use of those 

 stalking that end of the forest ; it has been christened 

 " Poch-a-biue," "the yellow bag," and is interesting 

 as having been originally built by an Englishman, 

 Captain Inge, some time in the thirties, who was one 

 of the very first of the Sassenachs to come north 

 in search of sport with the red deer. Before this 

 bothy was put up the deerstalkers used to sleep 

 under the shelter of a big rock close by, and the long 

 heather they used as bedding yet remains under it. 

 The true wild cat — not the tame cat turned wild — 

 still exists in this part of Ross-shire. Eagles of both 



