260 ikinQB of tbe 1Rofc t IRtfle, anfc Gun 



negative photograph, Captain Ross became one of his 

 most ardent disciples. The great sportsman worked 

 as hard to perfect himself in this new art as he had 

 ever done to attain his unrivalled skill with gun, rifle, 

 and pistol ; and in those early days of photography he 

 had probably few equals, amateur or professional, as a 

 skilled practitioner in every branch of the art, the 

 details of which he had laboriously mastered. He 

 could boast that, with the exception of M. Claudet and 

 Mr. Talbot, he was the oldest photographer in Great 

 Britain. 



To the last Horatio Ross retained his superb health, 

 his extraordinary vigour, and his skill with gun and rifle. 

 Writing to his friend Mr. Snowie, of Inverness, in 1881, 

 he says : " Saturday was my sixty-ninth ' Twelfth.' 

 On September 5th, if I be alive, I shall be eighty-one 

 years old. I was up this morning at 3 a.m. to go to 

 a particular part of the forest, but heavy rain sent me 

 back to bed. I have killed five stags, all in marvel- 

 lously good condition." 



And what was the secret of the phenomenal health 

 and energy which enabled Horatio Ross to perform at 

 four-score feats of endurance which most men of half 

 that age would be proud of accomplishing ? He tells 

 us himself, and his words are worth taking to heart. 

 "It may be useful to others," he writes, " if I state what 

 I believe to be the cause of my preserving until so late 

 a period of life the activity of a man of middle age. I 

 attribute it in a great measure to my having always 

 kept myself in a state of moderate training. I have 

 always lived well, and for many years have drunk 



