AN UNHAPPY FAMILY. 59 



issued by the late Duke of Richmond. The work 

 of extermination commenced, and was so effec- 

 tually carried out that before long the sole surviv- 

 ing stag, like " the Last of the Mohicans," 

 disappeared from his native woods. Although 

 formerly the number of the red deer was regularly 

 augmented during the winter months by recruits 

 from the distant forests of Glenfiddich and 

 Blackwater, not even a stray visitor is now ever 

 known to make his appearance there, which may 

 be attributable either to the complete extirpation 

 of the original stock probably the chief attrac- 

 tion to their Highland brethren or to the great 

 improvement in the pasture that 1ms since taken 

 place in the hill forests. Long narrow strips of 

 the heather are annually burned in different spots, 

 and in the following year a crop of verdant grass 

 springs up, affording ample pasturage to the 

 herds, as evinced not only by the greater weight 

 of the stags themselves, but by the increased 

 development of their antlers. Indeed it is only 

 during exceptionally severe seasons that they now 

 find any inducement to wander, or suffer from 

 privation, as in the memorable winter of lHf>,")- ('>(>. 

 when, after the melting of the snow, an unhappy 

 family, consisting of thirty-four red deer, one fox, 

 and nine grouse, were discovered in the bottom of 



