ANECDOTE. 181 



flock. Indeed I have heard it argued, and I believe it 

 to be true, that the eagle is rather an advantage than 

 otherwise on a Highland farm. Though he certainly 

 is occasionally guilty of serious harm, his attacks are 

 chiefly confined to the mountain-hare, which in some 

 districts is so very numerous, and so destructive to the 

 pasture intended for the sheep, that it requires thinning; 

 and thus the eagle, instead of being a subject fit only 

 for extirpation, serves rather to remove a nuisance and 

 befriend the cause of the farmer. If he does on a 

 chance emergency make his foray on the fold, the loss 

 to the owner after all is but small, compared with the 

 numbers which become victims to the cunning of the 

 fox, or perish by falling down the rocks. And surely 

 a Highland farmer, with his fifteen thousand sheep, can 

 well afford to lose half a hundred in the year without 

 missing them. 



The following is an incident which occurred to our 

 hero, in those halcyon days of sporting freebootery 

 when poaching was not dealt with as stringently as it 

 now is, and when even the most honest scrupled not to 

 take an occasional buck or fat hind from the forest. 



While sitting on the side of a mountain, in .one of 

 the wildest and least frequented parts of the Highlands, 

 and occupied in carefully examining, through his 

 " Dollond," the ground about him, Gillespie discov- 

 ered an odd-looking object, enveloped in a grey plaid, 

 and sitting under a rock on the opposite side of the 

 glen. He presently made out that it was a woman, 

 occupied, as far as he could tell by the aid of his glass, 

 in knitting. As she appeared quite alone, and the spot 

 was one not frequently trod by the foot of woman, for 

 there was no human habitation within some miles, his 

 curiosity was aroused, and he resolved to watch her 

 proceedings, that he might learn, if possible, what 



