98 SHOOTING THE GROUSE 



in pursuit of the hardy and succulent race of birds 

 which will soon represent the only British monopoly 

 in the world, and which are known as grouse. 



Observe the scientific knowledge, the inventive 

 power, the practical resource, and the financial enter- 

 prise which go to make up every detail of the 

 marvellous journey from the south to the north of 

 Great Britain. Short as it may seem to the man from 

 New York or Chicago, it is still in moral and material 

 detail the most remarkable piece of travelling in the 

 world. And what has produced this? Not all the 

 beauties of Edinburgh nor all the factories and 

 furnaces of Glasgow; not the enterprise of Dundee 

 nor the fisheries of Aberdeen ; nay, neither the 

 Trossachs nor the Pass of Killiecrankie, the snows of 

 Ben Nevis nor the depths of Loch Lomond, but 

 grouse, grouse and nothing else ! 



It would be idle to attempt to forecast the political 

 condition of these crowded islands in the next century, 

 but of this I think we may be tolerably certain that 

 so long as the everlasting hills remain as they are, 

 until, in short, some unthought-of metal, some un- 

 expected industry arises to people their glens, tunnel 

 their heights, and crush their rocks, so long will 

 grouse remain a potent factor in the internal economy 

 of the northern portion of our race. 



