152 SHOOTING THE GROUSE 



On a Yorkshire moor you are driving on the tops 

 all the time. If there is a high point on the moor, 

 rocky and precipitous, it is in extent probably a mere 

 fraction compared with the acreage of good moorland 

 around it. On a Scotch moor you have usually a 

 large acreage above the line of your highest driving 

 ground, but you rarely, if ever, see the tops driven. 

 The two accompanying sketches may help to suggest 

 the difference of conditions to the eye. In fig. 4, 

 ' Yorkshire,' you have a supposed rough outline of 

 an extent of moorland, the horizontal line showing 

 (in both drawings) the highest level reached by your 

 drivers. In fig. 5, ' Scotland,' you will observe that 

 as you only drive along the hill-faces where the heather 

 is good, this line lies below a large tract which I have 

 marked as ' tops,' dominated at the back by the 

 ptarmigan hills or deer ground. It is the birds on 

 the 'tops' that must either be absorbed into your 

 usual drives by extended manoeuvres, or made the 

 subject of special drives on intermediate days, with 

 extra lines of butts for the purpose. 



To my thinking, much more could be done than 

 is usually attempted by the former method. I would 

 suggest that the drivers should be on the ground a 

 long time before the guns are in position, and should 

 sweep across the tops, driving all upon them on to the 



