26 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



island could grow. When either of these shootings was 

 driven, especially if the deer were much frightened and the 

 wind favourable, they were apt to cross Bentalla to the other. 

 So, after a hunt at Scalastal, we were not unlikely to find the 

 same deer next day at Glenforsa, and vice versd. 



Like many tenants of deer, we were limited on both shoot- 

 ings. Three harts and two hinds was the Glenforsa allowance. 

 A like number of hinds on Scalastal, but they were not so 

 strict about the harts. These restrictions seldom annoy the 

 man who kills his full complement, but they are most disgust- 

 ing to a party who, at the close of a season, are far below the 

 figure it was thus plainly intimated they were expected to slay. 

 My predecessor, although assisted by his keeper and other 

 guns, did not kill one deer among them the whole season. 

 I also knew a party in the north, limited to seventy-five 

 harts, end the season with fifteen, and in the shooting of this 

 small lot they were aided by the resident foresters. 



The first year of my Glenforsa lease I had only a few days 

 at its deer. Our first stag was killed by my son when I was 

 in England. I had charged him not to disturb the Glenforsa 

 deer until my return, and he had kept strictly to small game 

 at Scalastal. Two days before I was expected in Mull he 

 drove over to Glenforsa House, with my Scalastal farm over- 

 seer, to prepare for our hunt. On the low ground along the 

 banks of Loch-na-Gaul, with the river Knock flowing through 

 it, is a detached strip of plantation much liked by deer, and, 

 if undisturbed, seldom without them. When moved they 

 have three escapes from this wood. When they break at the 

 south corner and make for Garrochree, two of these escapes 

 are guarded by the Knock pass. But should they seek safety 

 in Torlochan wood, they slip out from the middle of the plan- 

 tation, running east over a bare field, at the top of which, 

 under cover of a drain, is placed the rifle. The Knock pass 

 is far the most certain, not only as commanding two escapes, 

 but also from being more used by the deer. 



