92 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



always continue, as opportunity serves, and while 

 health and strength sufficient for the purpose remain, 

 shamelessly and without apology to indulge ourselves 

 therein. Some form of the chase is, in many cases, 

 a necessary relaxation for hard- worked professional 

 or business men in this strenuous, money -making, 

 political-agitating age. Fortunate is he who of him- 

 self, or through his friends, can get opportunity for 

 this sort of holiday if and when he wants it. 



At the same time there are economic consolations, 

 even for those who may condemn us. The high 

 rents paid for Scotch deer-forests, and their heavy 

 local rate assessment, both tend indirectly to amelior- 

 ate the naturally hard economic conditions of Highland 

 life. A large number of Highlanders also obtain 

 employment at good wages as stalkers, gillies, and 

 watchers ; innkeepers and local tradesmen all parti- 

 cipate in the benefits of money circulated ; and many 

 a Highland cottage larder is stocked with a good 

 supply of winter meat obtained from the forest 

 venison that is distributed. 



And, lastly, all these economically beneficial results 

 are extracted from rugged and mountainous Highland 

 districts, picturesque and beautiful no doubt, but also 

 at times too much snow-covered and storm- swept for 

 the maintenance of any possible equivalent in sheep. 



Long may the larger, hardier, and more active 

 red-deer continue to live and thrive in the natural 

 fastnesses of their own Highland glens and moun- 

 tains. They are deer whose indigenous ancestors 

 were formerly hunted by Scottish Kings. Long may 

 they be preserved and maintained for the virile purpose 

 of being stalked and shot by successive generations of 

 our own island race. 



