86 EEMINISCENCES OP THE LEWS. 



Having thus taken measures, as far as prac- 

 ticable, against the increase of vermin, I pro- 

 ceeded, as far as I could, to divide all the 

 ground into separate beats, never shooting the 

 same ground over twice for grouse. For some 

 seasons, as far as I could possibly manage it, 

 I never shot hens, but killed every old cock 

 I could get at, in season or out of season, on 

 the ground ; poached him, in short, anyhow I 

 could. I shot the broods always lightly, and 

 thus, by degrees, spread the birds out over the 

 whole ground, so that parts of the north 

 ground, where there was really nothing at 

 first, became as good as the south; but the 

 process was very slow indeed, and it entailed 

 great labour. To shoot the ground in this 

 way, we had often — besides driving some six 

 or seven miles along the road, where we left 

 our trap to return in — to walk three, four, 

 five, or six miles to our beat, shoot that beat, 

 and then walk the same distance back across 

 the muir to our road or our bothy. Few men 

 could do this, or would do it if they could; 

 and therefore, though I should have been glad 

 of a companion, the sort I wanted was hard 

 to find. 



I said above that I never went over the same 

 ground twice for grouse ; but, in the woodcock 



