390 



THE ELEVEN FOR SCOTLAND. 



BRED BY COLONEL MALCOLM, OF POLTALLOCH 



Dtotof^rtif^li by C. Kent, Wisliaiz'. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

 THE WEST HIGHLAND WHITE TERRIER. 



BY COLONEL E. D. MALCOLM, C.B., OF POLTALLOCH. 



■ A small bold breed and steady to the game 

 Next claims the tribute of peculiar fame ! 

 Train' d by the tribes on Britain's wildest shore. 

 Thence they their title of Agasses bore. 

 Small as the race that useless to their lord 

 Bask on the hearth and beg about the hoard. 

 Crook-limbed and black-eyed, all their frame 



appears 

 Flanked with no flesh and bristled rough 

 with hairs 



^NYONE who looks on the map of 

 Scotland must be struck with the 

 way in which ice and sea have 

 worked together to plough long valleys 

 out of the hills and fill them up with 

 salt water. Sometimes even more than 

 that has been done — the water has got 

 all round the land and separated it from 

 the main mass, cutting most marvellously 

 into what it has taken, as a glance at the 

 Island of Skye- — the Winged Island — or 

 at the Outer Hebrides will show. In this 

 way the Western Highlands of Scotland 

 are endowed with a sea coast of marvellous 

 length. It is said, for instance, that there 



But shod each foot with hardest claws ts seen, 

 The sole's kind armour on the beaten green ; 

 But fenced each jaw with closest teeth is found. 

 And death sits instant on th' inflicted wound. 

 Far o'er the rest he quests the secret prey, 

 And sees each track wind opening to his ray : 

 Far o'er the rest he feels each sceiit that 



blows 

 Court the live nerve and thrill along the 



*iose." John Whitaker. i77r. 



is no spot in the county of Argyll more than 

 five miles, as the crow flies, from the sea. 

 Except in the extreme north-east corner, 

 most of the county is within four miles of 

 the sea. The sea has for the most part 

 taken away the soft stuff and left only 

 hard rocks. 



Here we have the natural homes of the 

 badger, the fox, the otter, and the now 

 almost extinct wild cat. 



Man, being a hunting animal, kills the 

 otter for his skin, and the badger also ; 

 the fox he kills because the animal likes 

 lamb and game to eat. ^lan, being unable 

 to deal in the course of a morning with 



