CH. V. BEN LAIGHAL — FOXES. 67 



to the ground, and even the ferns and some other 

 wild plants near the waterside were entirely 

 -blackened. A hard white frost at this season is 

 always supposed to be followed by heavy rain, 

 and the saying was this time quite correct. 



On our road to Tongue the following day I 

 stopped for an hour or two about Loch Laighal, 

 one of the most beautiful of the lakes in Suther- 

 land. Ben Laighal is a fine and picturesque 

 mountain, and of great extent. We learned at a 

 shepherd's house that the fox-hunter of that district 

 had been up on the mountain since three o'clock in 

 pursuit of some foxes who had established them- 

 selves in the rocky corries near the summit, and 

 had commenced killing the old sheep. It is not 

 the general custom of foxes to destroy the old and 

 full-grown sheep where lambs are plentiful ; but 

 a colony or pair of foxes having once commenced 

 this habit, the mischief and havoc which they 

 commit are beyond calculation, more particularly 

 as they seldom tear or eat much of so large an 

 animal, but feed on the blood. According to the 

 accounts of the shepherds the foxes of Ben Laighal 

 are very prone to this kind of prey, and kill the 

 old sheep in preference to lambs or game. 



The foxes in the Highland districts must fre- 

 quently be put to many shifts for their living, and 



