92 HAPPY , HUNTING-GROUNDS 



and might almost be dispensed with there, their bur- 

 rows go so deep down in the sandy soil, that when 

 a ball disappears down a hole it is often impossible to 

 reach it even with a long driver. I suppose, however, 

 that when a rabbit comes back after a heavy night out 

 and stumbles over a round obstacle in his passage he 

 does not altogether like it, as on subsequent visits I 

 often recovered lost balls at the mouth of the holes, 

 presumably removed there by the occupants. 



It would be tedious to describe each successive 

 hole in turn, nor would it be any use even if I was 

 intending to write a guide to the links, for my ex- 

 perience is now many years old, and even during 

 my own visits changes were frequently made. The 

 ninth was just below the site of an ancient prehistoric 

 fort, Dun Gallain, where I used generally to pause 

 and spy with a Zeiss glass, a small single oiie which I 

 carried loose in my pocket. In Port Lotha, the little 

 bay just below to the south, I could identify most of 

 the birds with the naked eye, and some at least of the 

 seals which frequented its sheltered waters in con- 

 siderable numbers were generally to be seen swim- 

 ming about within shot, turning their great liquid 

 eyes upon our moving figures as if they wondered 

 what iwe were about. Blue rock pigeons darted in 

 and out of the fissures and caves, two ravens winged 

 their heavy flight from a point just below high-water 

 mark where they had evidently been feeding on 

 garbage left by the tide, numbers of eiders and 

 cormorants were fishing in the strong tideway near 

 the mouth, and a flock of a dozen wild ducks feeding 

 close to the bank, not a hundred yards off. It is a 

 favourite spot, where these birds can be successfully 



