6 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE 



largely on hearsay information. The best advice 

 an old hand can give to those who intend to take 

 a moor is, that they should put themselves, if pos- 

 sible, in direct communication with some former 

 tenant before making an offer ; and never conclude 

 a bargain without personal inspection. 



My first acquaintance with Scotland was made 

 in the year 1867, when my lucky star took me to 

 Poltalloch, the beautiful property of the Mal- 

 colms, just opposite the Crinan Canal. From 

 that date until the present year I have spent 

 every autumn in Scotland, and most of them at 

 the sportsman's paradise where I paid my first 

 visit to the North, and, as nearly all the sub- 

 sequent sketches describe incidents which took 

 place there, I must briefly describe its geographi- 

 cal situation and characteristics. 



Poltalloch comprises upwards of 100,000 acres 

 of moorland and plantations, interspersed with 

 arable and pasture land in the straths and glens. 

 It extends southward along the Sound of Jura 

 to the mouth of Loch Sween in Cantyre, and is 

 bounded on the west by Loch Crinan and Loch 

 Craignish, extending northward and eastward 

 along the shores of Loch Awe. Questions of 

 political economy are foreign to my subject, but 

 it is permissible to allude to the magnificent 

 roads which owe their existence to three genera- 

 tions of owners of this great estate, and to the 

 extensive draining operations which have created 

 the greater part of the arable and pasture land 



