58 AUTUMNS ON THE SPEY. 



in this comparatively open country as seldom to 

 interrupt his sport. Its favourite haunts are in 

 the fir forests and plantations, and it is perhaps 

 nowhere more numerous than in the great woods 

 near Gordon Castle, from which, alas ! the red 

 deer, Cen-us claplnis, has latterly been extirpated. 

 From time immemorial these monarchs of the 

 race had dwelt among the primaeval pines that 

 stretch away in the direction of Keith, and many 

 a stirring event, besides the report of a rifle, must 

 have varied the monotony of their domestic lives. 

 In the library of Gordon Castle, suspended from 

 the ceiling, are the skulls of two stags, with the 

 tynes of the antlers still inextricably locked 

 together,* just as when they were discovered in 

 fatal conflict, by one of the keepers, at the bottom 

 of a deep gorge through which the burn of 

 Fochabers pursues its earlier course. One was 

 already dead, the brow antler of his more power- 

 ful antagonist having transfixed his neck and 

 severed the jugular vein. Besides these, some of 

 the finest " heads " in Scotland were formerly 

 obtained in this locality, and adorn the walls of 

 the same apartment ; but these golden days were 

 drawing to a close. In IH-4'I the fatal edict was 



This inoitlent is alltnleil to liy Mr. Scrojn: in his Days of 

 Deer-stalklttr/, page 15. 



