100 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [CHAP. xn. 



nearly all gone, " puir beasties." " Well, but what good could 

 the otters do you?" I asked her. " Good, your honour? why 

 scarcely a morn came but they left a bonny grilse on the scarp 

 down yonder, and the vennison was none the vvaur of the 

 bit, the puir beasts eat themselves." The people here call 

 every eatable animal, fish, flesh, or fowl, venison, or as they pro- 

 nounce it, " vennison." For instance they tell you that the 

 snipes are " good vennison," or that the trout are not good 

 " vennison " in the winter. 



It seems that a few years ago, before the otters had been so 

 much destroyed, the people on particular parts of the river were 

 never at a loss for salmon, as the otters always take them ashore, 

 and generally to the same bank or rock, and when the fish are 

 plenty, they only eat a small piece out of the shoulder of each, 

 leaving the rest. The cottagers, aware of this, were in the habit 

 of looking every morning for these remains. 



