314 THEIR DEATH. 



presents him as possessing supernatural power), and with 

 one hand he seized Phorp by the neck, and with the other, 

 which was a charmed and destructive one, he tore out the 

 brave animal's heart. 



This adventure occurred at a place near the march, 

 between the parishes of Clyne and Kildonan, still called 

 Leck-na-con, the Stone of the Dogs, there having been 

 placed a large stone on the spot where they fought. 

 The ground over which Fingal and the Sutherland chief 

 hunted that day is called Dirrie-leck-con. Bran suffered 

 so severely in the fight that he died in Glen Loth before 

 leaving the forest, and was buried there. A huge cairn 

 was heaped over him, which still remains, and is known 

 by the name of Cairn-bran.* 



Not being in possession of any of the celebrated race 

 of the original Scotch greyhound, which are now, indeed, 

 very rare, and finding that all the dogs in the forest of 

 Atholl were miserably degenerate, I bred some litters 

 from a foxhound and a greyhound, the foxhound being the 

 father. This cross answered perfectly : indeed I was 

 previously advised that it would do so by Mr. John Crerar, 

 who, after having tried various crosses for sixty years, 

 found this incomparably the best. Neither of these 

 animals themselves would have answered ; for the grey- 

 hound cannot stand the weather, and wants courage to 

 that degree, that most of them will turn from a fox when 

 they come up to him, and see his grin, and feel his sharp 



* Mr. Grant of Corrymony, in his work on the Gael, relates a tra- 

 dition somewhat similar to the above, and which may have been drawn 

 from the same sources ; but it differs from it in stating that Bran was 

 the victor, and in the omission of his death. 



