28 EEMIJSriSCENCES OE THE LEWS. 



tract of country — almost an island; for Loch 

 Seafortli on one side, and Loch Brisort on the 

 other, run very close to one another at high 

 water. It contains over 75,000 acres — some 

 very fine hills for deer, with excellent feeding- 

 ground, and its venison is the best in the 

 Lews. 



In former times, in the time of the 

 M'Kenzies, the late Lord Seaforth tried to 

 make a forest of the Park by building a wall 

 across from Loch Seaforth to Loch Brisort, to 

 keep the deer in ; but this had long ceased to 

 exist. But the great drawback to the Park 

 then was, when it was part of the Aline 

 shooting, that between the house of Aline and 

 it lay Loch Seaforth — a beautiful, picturesque 

 object in fine weather, but in bad — which it 

 sometimes can be in those latitudes — not the 

 pleasantest place in the world to cross, except 

 in a very good sea-boat, manned by four good 

 oars and a good coxswain. There were days 

 in which it was no pleasant work getting there 

 or back, and this passage was a great damper 

 of sport. Moreover, there was in the whole of 

 this Park but one small bothy, in which the 

 sportsmen, gillies, and stalkers could put up — 

 and what a den it was ! I never shall forget 

 the first day we got there — wet, of course. I 



