156 TOUR IN SUTHERLAND. CH. X. 



extinguishing in some inexplicable manner ; as on 

 your asking him a question suddenly when out on 

 the hill, if smoking, ten to one hut he puts the 

 pipe, with red-hot tobacco in it, at once into his 

 waistcoat pocket, where it dies a natural death in 

 an innocent manner that I would recommend no 

 one else to expect his pipe to imitate. 



Summer or winter the Highland deer-stalker 

 puts on his plaid when going out, and, if he does 

 not carry a gun, has in his hand some favourite 

 stick (or " staff," as he calls it) made of hazel or 

 juniper, and cut during some excursion to the low 

 country. His telescope, though good, generally 

 refuses to be seen distinctly through by any eyes 

 but his own ; somehow no one else can hit off the 

 focus. Though caring little for grouse-shooting, 

 he is usually a fisherman, and can throw a fly 

 well enough on occasion, and a present of salmon 

 flies goes straight to his heart. 



To return to Aultnaharrow. I was much pleased 

 with the kennel of deer-hounds in charge of the 

 forester there ; some of them fine, powerful dogs, 

 fit to pull down any stag. This breed of dogs, 

 which a few years ago was almost extinct, or at any 

 rate only in the hands of a very few Highland 

 proprietors, is now rapidly increasing, not only in 

 numbers, but also in size, strength, and other good 



