SIZE OF ATHOLL DEER. 175 



It is thought that the harts in Atholl Forest are inferior 

 n point of size to those in other districts ; and from the 

 weight of stags killed elsewhere, an account of which has 

 3een sent to me, I am forced to come to the same 

 jonclusion. As the pastures are excellent almost every- 

 where, and particularly rich on the north brae of Ben-y- 

 rloe, this inferiority in point of size cannot be attributed 

 to the incapacity of the ground to produce larger animals. 

 Et arises, I think, from a very obvious cause Blair being 

 in the high road to the north, almost every sportsman that 

 came from England profited of its hospitality, and par- 

 ticipated in its amusements ; thus there never was a day 

 in the season when the wind was favourable, in which the 

 cleer were not disturbed to the utmost limit that the forest 

 would admit of. Some of the best harts were killed off, 

 to the number of 100 or 130, or perhaps more in each 

 season ; and many others I imagine (and these the largest), 

 found their position so unquiet, that they sought the 

 forests of Gaig and Braemar, and deserted that of Atholl, 

 where they were continually driven, and kept in a state of 

 perpetual alarm. It is evident that no animal could 

 arrive at its proper dimensions under such harassing cir- 

 cumstances. 



But many people were deceived as to the actual size of 

 the Atholl harts, from the custom of reckoning at Blair by 

 Dutch weight, whilst others used the imperial. Now as 

 Dutch weight is seventeen ounces and a half to the pound, 

 and sixteen pounds to the stone, the difference is most 

 material. The weight, too, was given not as the deer 

 stood, but after he had been gralloched. 



But if the pastures are fine, the ground also is in all 



