48 WILD SPOKTS OF THE HIGHLANDS [CHAP. v. 



" Hieland lads." For, although they never ill-use the keepers 

 in the savage manner that English poachers so frequently do, I 

 have known instances of keepers, who (although they were too 

 smart gentlemen to carry their master's game) have been taken 

 prisoners by poachers on the hill, and obliged to accompany them 

 over their master's ground, and carry the game killed on it all day. 

 They have then either been sent home, or, if troublesome, the 

 poachers have tied them hand and foot, and left them on some 

 marked spot of the muir, sending a boy or shepherd to release them 

 some hours afterwards. Going in large bodies on well-preserved 

 ground, these men defy the keepers, and shoot in spite of them. 

 If pursued by a party stronger than themselves, they halt occa- 

 sionally, and fire bullets either over the heads of their pursuers 

 or into the ground near them, of course taking care not to hurt 

 them. The keepers go home, protesting that they have been 

 fired upon and nearly killed, while the Highlanders pursue their 

 sport. The grand object of the poachers being to keep out of 

 the fangs of the law, they never uselessly run the risk of being 

 identified, and although they frequently have licences, they 

 always avoid showing them if possible, in order that their names 

 may not be known. If they shoot on ground where the watchers 

 know them, they take great care to avoid being seen. If they 

 think there is any likelihood of a prosecution occurring, they be- 

 take themselves to a different part of the country till the storm 

 is blown over. In some of the wide mountain districts, a band 

 of poachers can shoot the whole season without being caught, 

 and I fancy that many of the keepers, and even their masters, 

 rather wish to shut their eyes to the trespassing of these gangs 

 as long as they keep to certain districts, and do not interfere 

 with those parts of the grouse-ground which are the most care- 

 fully preserved. 



Some proprietors or lessees of shooting-grounds make a kind 

 of half compromise with the poachers, by allowing them to kill 

 grouse as long as they do not touch the deer ; others, who are 

 grouse -shooters, let them kill the deer to save their birds. I 

 have known an instance where a prosecution was stopped by the 

 aggrieved party being quietly made to understand, that if it was 

 carried on, " a score of lads from the hills would shoot over his 

 ground for the rest of the season." 



