146 COUNTRY ESSAYS. 



He was a brother of Professor Wilson, an ardent sportsman and 

 amusing writer, and, landing occasionally on his upward voyage, 

 found time to fish and make observations on natural history, 

 Another book, more valuable in its day than at present, but 

 still useful from the many acute remarks of its enthusiastic 

 writer, is Mr. St. John's Tour in Sutherlandshire (2 vols. i2mo., 

 London, 1849). The book also is somewhat of a misnomer, as 

 only three parts of the first volume are devoted to extracts from 

 a journal describing a ramble through Sutherlandshire ; the rest 

 consisting of field notes, remarks on deer-stalking and fishing. 

 Still it takes the reader back to the time when Assynt was in- 

 finitely more primitive than it now is, and it was easier to find 

 a man who had been to the North Cape than one who knew 

 anything of this charming district. In those days, say forty 

 years ago, the osprey might be seen. It bred in several locali- 

 ties near Kylescu and Scourie, and especially Loch Assynt, 

 where, two years before Mr. St. John wrote, it had been shot, 

 and that by no less a sportsman than himself, though no one 

 would guess it from his words (vol. i. p. 119): "At Loch 

 Assynt on a peninsula (once an island, and now occasionally so), 

 there are the ruins of an old castle. On the summit of the 

 highest part of the wall is an immense pile of weather-beaten 

 and bleached sticks, which, two years ago, formed an osprey's 

 nest but unluckily this most interesting bird has been killed or 

 driven from its picturesque and exposed dwelling-place." The 

 fisherman yet looks up with regret to the platform on which a 

 cartload of sticks used to form the osprey's nest, and listens to 

 the recitals of the natives on the picturesque manner in which 

 the ospreys used to dash into the lake in front while feeding, 

 and then reflects with something of the feeling which prompted 

 the celebrated exclamation, Et tu, Brute ! that their destroyers 

 were two of the most eminent sportsmen and naturalists of the 

 time. To such lengths will a longing for specimens carry 

 collectors ! And now the ornithologist's malison is said ! 



