40 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLLSHIRE 



botanist or tourist does little harm ; but a new 

 race has sprung up, of whom it is difficult to 

 speak or think with patience, who have discovered 

 the commercial value of ferns, and are rapidly 

 destroying what is rare and beautiful. I know 

 one exquisite Highland loch, of which the most 

 remarkable and beautiful feature was the Osmunda, 

 which fringed its banks in veritable bushes. Last 

 year, an enterprising collector fairly stripped the 

 accessible portions of the banks, and carried away 

 three cart-loads of roots ! I do not know if he 

 could swim, but I should have been very glad to 

 have given him the opportunity of learning to 

 do so in his clothes. 



The same hounds which hunt the fallow-deer 

 also serve for following the roe ; and indeed, if 

 they had the choice, would probably select the 

 latter amusement (as the scent is stronger or 

 more attractive). The roe prefer the natural 

 birch-woods and young plantations to the high 

 woods and thick bracken, and trust more to their 

 cunning than their speed to elude pursuit. Their 

 endless turns and devices, and the fact that they 

 usually run in a ring, and never go far in front 

 of the hounds, make a roe hunt very amusing 

 to watch, particularly as in the open cover on a 

 hillside one can often see the whole course of 

 the hunt for an hour together. I have seen an 

 old buck, with the hounds after it, push a doe 

 out of its couch in the bracken, and take its 



