§6 SHOOTING AND SALMON FISHING 



cried from the other guns. Whilst on the subject of curious 

 shots, we will also tell of two others — and in thirty years these 

 four are the only out-of-the-way shooting events happening to 

 us. When out one autumn day on the Ardconnell shootings at 

 Oban, we spied with a field glass a pack of some hundred 

 blackcocks sitting in a turnip-field, so sending off the keeper 

 to go round to try and put them over us, we crept into 

 position. The pack came well, so picking out the two 

 leaders, we killed and gathered them, and walked slowly on to 

 allow Donald to come up. A cry from him called a halt, when, 

 on coming within hail, to our great surprise, we heard there 

 were a "lot more down." The dog eventually gathered seven 

 others ; but, even then, Donald maintained there were still 

 some left. With the exception of the first two, we had seen 

 no others drop, and to this day it puzzles us to know how 

 that could have happened. However, there were the nine 

 old cocks to the two barrels, and although the result of an 

 accident, we accepted the matter without any great grief. 

 The last of the oddities that happened took place in recent 

 years, whilst shooting with the late Mr. Benjamin Way 

 at Denham Place, Uxbridge. We were posted by the side 

 of an osier bed bordered by a trout stream, across which the 

 pheasants were coming, and the first shots we fired resulted 

 in an odd right and left — a cock to the first barrel, a pike to 

 the second. 



Since those happy Kilmaronaig days, although plenty of 

 blackgame have been killed in other counties, never again 

 have we seen such a fine show of these splendid birds, or such 

 successful driving, so continuously carried on. 



For beauty of scenery and variety of sport, there is no part 

 of the bonnie North better able to hold its own than the 

 country lying between Oban, Ardrishaig and Dalmally. Were 

 it not for the weather, it would be perfection ; but, if once it 

 begins to rain, there is no telling how long it may last. Once 

 we saw it fine every day for a whole month ; but, during a ten 



