2 1 2 Notes on Sport and Travel i 



cannot, nor does Donald seem particularly anxious 

 to do so. We would we ' had our Gaelic ' to 

 understand the chaff that passes ! It must have 

 some fun in it to cause bright eyes to sparkle 

 brighter, and some wit to produce such a severe 

 struggle for instant rejoinder. Poor down -trodden 

 Sutherland Highlanders ! who, to see you galloping 

 along in that fashion, would ever suppose that you 

 had all been transported to the uttermost parts of 

 the earth years ago ? We are told so in ' prent 

 bulks,' and so it must be true ; but still it is rather 

 puzzling to make out why there are so many more 

 of you now than there were before you were deported 

 in thousands. Verily, if all is true that is said about 

 you, you must be a wonderfully prolific people. 

 Expound unto me, Donald, how it happens that 

 there are so many more people in Sutherland now 

 than there used to be. 



' 'Deed, sir, I cannot say, except because the old 

 Duchess-Countess moved the people down from the 

 hills, where they were starving, to the sea, where 

 they get the fishing, and a chance of getting in their 

 crops oftener than once in three years, which is about 

 the average in the higher glens.' 



' Ah, well ! I should not wonder either ; but 

 another cause is the discontinuance of your good old 

 custom of cutting each other's throats. When you 

 left off that, you became too numerous for the land 

 as it used to be. If old Sir Robert Gordon is to be 

 trusted, there never were such a set of people for 



