INTRODUCTION OF FIRE-ARMS. 39 



which time they will go in any direction, either up or 

 down wind. Even in the day-time, a cross wind might be 

 fatal to the drive, if it were not for the enormous extent of 

 ground that a force of 2000 men could cover. A 



O 



hundred men a mile would give less than twenty yards of 

 interval between each man, and constitute a line of twenty 

 miles in length. But how did all these rough-footed 

 Highlanders subsist for two months on the barren 

 mountains? A few days, one would think, would have 

 been quite sufficient for their purpose. As for the number 

 of deer that were killed, if a hundred couple of fierce and 

 swift dogs were let loose, which we are told was not unusual, 

 they must have pulled down a great many hinds and calves, 

 though probably but few harts. 



When the country was partially covered with wood, the 

 forests were driven, and the sportsmen occupied passes 

 where they took their chance of sport ; and this method is 

 still occasionally resorted to in the forest of Glengarry and 

 in other places. But, generally speaking, the system has 

 given way to the more exciting amusement of deer- 

 stalking. 



The destruction of the woods, and the substitution of 

 the gun for the bow and arrow and hagbute, formed quite 

 an epoch in the habits and size of the deer, as well as in 

 the mode of killing them. 



In Sutherland, fire-arms were unknown until about the 

 latter end of the sixteenth century, when a large awkward 

 kind of blunderbuss, named by the country-people Glas- 

 nabhean (meaning the mountain match-lock gun), was 

 obtained by Angus Baillie of Uppat, one of the most 

 noted of the Sutherland foresters of whom we have an/ 



D 4 



