290 FOBESTS OF SCOTLAND. 



-stag that wandered into strange ground." The stranger 

 was liberated by the gentlemen present, and very prudently 

 marched home with the least possible delay. 



Hunting parties in the Sutherland forest were formerly 

 upon an extended scale ; there may still be seen the ruins 

 of two very large hunting lodges, of the description which 

 Pennant mentions, in the Strath of Helmsdale, the stones 

 of which now form huge cairns : one of these, near Cayn, 

 appears to have been 108 feet long and 26 feet broad; and 

 the other, which is at Saliscraggy, measures 174 feet in 

 length and 26 in breadth, and is situated on a very pleasant 

 bank of the river Helmsdale, near the old Strath road. 



But I have lingered a long while in this romantic country ; 

 more, much more could I add did my limits allow of it, for 

 the assistance which has been so obligingly conferred upon 

 rne, and which I have acknowledged in the preface to these 

 pages, has been most able and ample ; but I must now con- 

 clude, adding only in the words of Sir Robert Gordon, " The 

 bodies and mynds of the people of this province (Suther- 

 land) are indued with extraordinarie abilities of nature; 

 they are great hunters and do delyte much in that exercise, 

 which makes them hardened to endure travell and labour." 



SOME ACCOUNT OF THE FORESTS AND 

 DEER-HAUNTS IN ROSS-SHIRE. 



THE extensive estate of Lord Lovat, which ranges west- 

 wards from his residence of Beaufort Castle, near Beauly, 

 forms the northern boundary of Inverness-shire, for a long 

 distance dividing it from the county of Ross, and having 

 long been the abode of deer, the appropriation of a large 

 space to their exclusive possession has established a good 

 forest; which the judicious care of the noble proprietor, 

 himself a first-rate shot, and good stalker, will continue to 

 improve. With the boundaries of the Chisholm country I 

 am not acquainted. 



The wild country of Strath-Conan, on which we enter to 

 the north, is the commencement of the county of Ross, 



