90 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



stags more than any other class of deer. The hinds, 

 though numerous, were certainly not, in my opinion, 

 too plentiful for a first-class forest, after the proper 

 proportion were killed. (Four rifles killed 113 hinds 

 in five days' stalking and driving in December.) The 

 inferior stags, however, appeared to me somewhat 

 too plentiful, and, besides constantly, though no doubt 

 innocently, interfering to save their betters, they could 

 only have the effect of begetting, so far as they were 

 concerned, an inferior and degenerate stock. 



Judging, however, by what we saw and heard 

 during the last few days of the season, when the 

 stags were belling, and during the last two days, 

 when a portion of the large Fasnakyle and Knockfin 

 woods were driven, a good supply of master stags 

 had succeeded in eluding the rifle and still remained 

 to keep up the quality of the deer by the operation 

 of the good old law of ' might is right.' One herd 

 of over 200 stags, known as the ' Band of Martyrs/ 

 was constantly seen in one part of the forest ; it did 

 not contain a single head worth shooting, and was left 

 in comparative security, though a member of the 

 herd would be occasionally slain by some exasperated 

 sportsman, whose stalk after a warrantable stag it 

 had spoiled. Had these inferior stags been indis- 

 criminately shot, the total might have been very 

 largely increased. 



So much, then, for the details and nature of a bag 

 that I have yet to learn, among those of its kind, has 

 been exceeded, or even closely approached. 



And so much, also, for the relation of some of 

 my personal sporting experiences in Inverness- shire 

 and other Highland forests now embodied in this 

 chapter, experiences that have been enjoyed mainly 

 through the kindly hospitality of friends. They 



