STRATH-CONAN. 383 



SOME ACCOUNT OF THE FORESTS AND 

 DEER-HAUNTS IN ROSS-SHIRE. 



THE extensive estate of Lord Lov.it, which ranges west- 

 wards from his residence of Beaufort Castle, near Beauly, 

 forms the northern boundary of Inverness -shire, for along 

 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-Co nan, on which we enter 

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

 through the whole of the highland parts of which, with 

 little exception as well as through the adjoining wilds of 

 Sutherland, it would be difficult to find any district not 

 more or less tenanted by the red deer. 



The division of Strath- Conan was long held in unenvi- 

 able notoriety, as the main stronghold of the illicit distiller 

 in the north of Scotland, a celebrity which it has only lost 

 in recent years. The memory of this might possibly ere 

 long have passed away ; but the deer-stalker, who is made 

 aware that the scene of Mr. James Baillie Eraser's tale of 



