REMINISCENCES OF A ROSS-SHIRE FOREST. 147 



(whack !) he's a n<?sty prute (whack ! whack !) 

 There was a gentleman, he wad com frae aboot 

 London, he had his leg proken, mem ; and me and 

 Mr M'Spinach, 1 that's him o' the inn, we wad carry 

 him up and doun the stairs thegither. He wad lie 

 for aboot fower months, mem ; he was a nice gentle- 

 man whatever." 



That was a thoroughly enjoyable drive, and the 

 scenery was much appreciated. 



" The deer may be there, mem, though you do not 

 see the deer." 



And this is my contention. At that time of the 

 year when tourists most do congregate in the High- 

 lands say, from August first to September twentieth, 

 they the deer, not the tourists frequent the tops of 

 the hills, and are quite invisible to inexperienced 

 eyes, and generally to experienced ones too without 

 a glass. Say that the " unaccustomed tourist," with 

 a few friends, starts to climb a hill, the deer may be 

 retreating before them, and they may be in total 

 ignorance of the fact. On that day when I went 

 out after the " drawing-room window stag," two deer 

 retreated before us, and two dozen might have done 

 the same. Yet there were four of us, each with a 

 glass over his shoulder, going out with the sole object 

 of looking for them, and carefully spying the ground 

 as AVC advanced. " We assured him we had seen no 



1 The clan M'Spinach (tartan, dark green, with yolk-of-egg 

 yellow stripes) is now extinct. 



