288 NETHER LOCHABER. 



tion known from the Moray Firth to the Clyde. Most readers 

 of poetry will remember how Pope, in one of his finest poems 

 (Prologue to the Satires), apostrophises his friend Dr. Arbuthnot as 



" Friend to my life ! which did not you prolong, 

 The world had wanted many an idle song." 



And if one dared to parody any couplet from a poem so beautiful, 

 we should be disposed to address the first fox-hunter or mole- 

 catcher of our numerous acquaintances among them who are 

 deacons of their craft, we chanced to meet, in some such words as 



these 



" Friend to my mill ! which did not you supply 

 With frequent grist, I'd wither, wane, and die." 



A few days ago the Ardgour fox-hunter, Donald Macdonald by 

 name, a Moidart man, and an excellent specimen of his class, 

 called upon us with his quarterly budget of news from glen and 

 upland, from hill and scaur, and den and corrie ; and a wonderful 

 season in his particular line he vows it has been. Since the middle 

 of April last he has killed and bagged no fewer fawn, fifty-one foxes 

 all told, besides a number, both young and old, that were worried to 

 the death by his terriers in the deepest recesses of their saobhies 

 or dens, whence, when the turmoil of battle had ceased, and his 

 dogs had emerged bearing very visible marks of the deadly conflict 

 within, it was impossible to dig them out. All these foxes were 

 got on the borders of three conterminous farms Aryhuelan (Dr. 

 Simpson's), Conaglen and Inverscaddle (the Earl of Morton's), and 

 Glennahuirich (Mr. Milligan's). Donald, who has been a fox- 

 hunter for upwards of thirty years, never before knew foxes so 

 numerous, and this not in one or more favourite haunts within 

 a given district, but generally over the country. He couldn't 

 himself in any way satisfactorily account for the fox fecundity of 

 1874-75, and we could only regret that we were unable to enlighten 

 him in the least, for he avowedly came for enlightenment on a 



