238 HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS 



harness now little required in these days of motors, 

 or the afternoon on the rocky slopes of Barrachoan and 

 Barachrome, where we see a sprinkling of black-game, 

 and get a good many more very sporting pheasants, 

 and a fair number of woodcocks. The total bag in 

 the evening is not large according to modern ideas, 

 some two hundred pheasants, and about fifty " various " 

 woodcock, hares, rabbits, and pigeons. We see, but 

 do not shoot at, a few of the wild turkeys ; there are 

 none of the grand but mischievous capercailzie which 

 form such a feature of a Perthshire beat in winter. 

 I believe the Duke of Argyll was one of the first to 

 reintroduce them at Inveraray, but I have never myself 

 seen one on any part of the Poltalloch estate, although 

 I have heard that one or two have been seen on the 

 other side of the Crinan Canal. We have seen a good 

 many more roe, and several fallow deer, both bucks 

 and does ; and altogether we are a contented party 

 when we gather in the smoking-room for a pipe and 

 chat before tea. Here the walls are adorned not only 

 with trophies of the chase moose, red-deer, and 

 kangaroo but also with the collection of South Sea 

 clubs and other weapons which the great navigator 

 Captain Cook collected in his first and second voyages, 

 and gave to his great friend Dr. Orme, the great- 

 grandfather of the present Laird, just before starting 

 for that fatal third and last journey when he met his 

 death at the hands of those natives to whom he was 

 so true a friend and benefactor. 



I will not weary my readers by giving detailed 

 descriptions of all the varied delights of the next 

 fortnight. We have three or four more regular "second 

 times through" before the beaters are dismissed for 



