316 THE DEER FORESTS OF SCOTLAND. 



same time. The home beat and Altnarynie are worked 

 from Lochmore ; Ben Strome beat can be worked 

 either from there or from the Duke's other lodge at 

 Kyle Strome, the two being some eight miles apart, 

 and a tramp over the ground separating the two lodges, 

 rifle in hand, with William Elliot as stalker, on a nice 

 fine clear day, is all that the most ardent lover of sport 

 or admirer of scenery could desire. I had the good 

 fortune to make this happy journey on the 26th of 

 August of last year (1895), and a finer combination of 

 land and sea scape it would be hard to find. In ad- 

 dition to that I had three shots, making one abominable 

 miss and killing two good stags, which weighed that 

 same evening 1 7 stone 2 lb. and 1 5 stone quite clean ; 

 both of them, at this early date, were also absolutely 

 free of velvet, not even having rags hanging about the 

 coronets, but while the horns of the smaller stag 

 were quite black and burnished, those of the heavier 

 deer were still whiteish. That day I saw many other 

 stags clear of velvet, and in season 1893 perfectly 

 clean horns could be seen as early as July 20th. 



