154 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



tlioroughly entered into the idea. We had other 

 plans in regard to the crossing of bison coto with 

 the Scottish bull, which I am sure would have 

 answered admirably; the breed before I got to 

 Taymouth having been made the reverse way, and 

 through that mistake, the bisonic hump nearly cost 

 the life of the mother — a fact that a bailiff with two 

 ideas ought to have foreseen. 



The offspring, however, of this erroneously 

 arrived at cross, came to the butcher, quicker and 

 fatter than any other beast of the pure breed. 

 We had also a project for ascertaining whether 

 the cross between the male capercailzie and the 

 greyhen were mules or merely hybrids. I sus23ected 

 that they were the latter, and would prove fecun- 

 dite, for capercailzie and black-game are essentially 

 ^^ grouse," and I saw no reason why that cross 

 should not be a perfect success. We mooted also 

 a large cross uf the red deer in park and forest 

 — a fact that is wanted all over Scotland, for, 

 generally speaking, the red deer have terribly 

 deteriorated in size ; but all these curious, useful, 

 and interesting experiments were cut across by 

 tlie death of a nobleman, gentleman, friend, and 

 man, whose likeness I have nevei^ looked on again, 



