118 FORESTER AND POACHERS. 



Of the merits of this story I leave others to judge. 

 Naturalists ^ave, I believe, assigned forty years as the 

 ordinary term of a deer's life. This animal, therefore, 

 if the tradition be true, out-nestored Nestor. 



Our next is the , narrative of an event in which, 

 judging by the zest with which he related it, I should 

 suspect the narrator himself to have had a share, 

 though to have insinuated my suspicions would have 

 been to beard the lion, and bring the " skene dhu " 

 from its sheath. 



The scene is a natural cavern in the wild side of Ben 

 Fionan, to which has been assigned the title of " the 

 King's Cave," or Uaigh nam Riogh, from a tradi- 

 tionary belief, still prevalent in the neighbourhood, 

 that it served as a place of rest for some Scandinavian 

 prince on his hunting excursions, in an age long since 

 passed away ; a purpose which it has doubtless served 

 on many an occasion of later date, to the benighted 

 poacher, who, with perhaps less right, but equal skill 

 and ardour, has sought his pastime in the forest. 



The following are the particulars. On a dark and 

 howling night, within the damp and lichen-covered 

 walls of the King's Cave, were congregated a band of 

 poachers, who had long levied their " black mail" on 

 the forest, in the form of fat bucks, stately stags, and 

 yeld hinds, and whose sagacity had baffled the utmost 

 skill and vigilance of the keepers and foresters of the 

 district. Thus, inured to danger, their highland spirits, 

 naturally bold and energetic, had acquired a degree of 

 reckless daring which rendered it hazardous to interfere 

 with them ; and though liberal rewards were held out 

 to the keepers who should detect and bring the 

 offenders to justice, those officials were sufficiently 

 acquainted with the numbers and the character of the 



