282 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



and dependents. No serviceable attempts have been made 

 to facilitate the transport of grain from the mountains 

 to those towns from whence it could be sent abroad ; 

 and hence, the only markets which could be legitimately 

 and beneficially resorted to by the peasantry are, from 

 want of means of egress from the highlands, embargoed 

 to these hapless people. Left to their own resources, 

 what can this wretched population do ? At the mercy 

 of hireling drivers and cold-hearted agents, they are 

 required on a given day to produce the rent — ^honestly 

 if they can — but to produce it. To convey their miser- 

 able grain crop to a distant market would greatly abate 

 the amount of the sale, by the expense and difficulty 

 attendant upon the carriage. An easier mode of dis- 

 posing of it is presented. The still is substituted for 

 the market ; and hence, three parts of the corn grown 

 in these bogs and hills are converted into whisky. 



At first sight, the advantages of private distillation 

 appear immense. The grain will realise nearly three 

 times the price that it would have produced if sold for 

 exportation ; but when the demoralisation, and waste, 

 and ulterior risk are considered, the imaginary profits 

 are far overbalanced by the certain or contingent losses 

 which attend it. 



From the moment that the grain is first wetted to the 

 time the spirit has been doubled, the ordinary habits of 

 the peasant are interrupted. Night and day he must 

 be on the alert — and if there were no greater penalty 

 beyond the unbidden visits of every idle blackguard 

 who drops in to taste the " barley bree," it would be 

 a sufficient punishment for the offence. But this is the 

 smallest tax upon the produce of the still ; when the 

 process is complete, much of the produce is expended 



