NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



firelocks of their Gallic allies, succeeded in a generation 

 in achieving the complete extermination of the wild 

 red deer of these mountains. As one looks at these 

 magnificent glens, hills, and corries one can easily 

 perceive what a perfect country this must once have 

 been for red deer. Even at the present day it is of 

 so little value to man that it might, without injury to 

 the peasants, be utilised much more profitably as deer 

 forests than for the support of the grouse and the few 

 sheep that now inhabit it. 



After spreading out and making a circuit to the 

 right without finding a pack of grouse that should 

 have been hereabouts, we crossed a widish bog and 

 took the side of the lower slopes of Nephin Beg. We 

 were not over-lucky in the early part of the day, but we 

 had managed to achieve three and a half brace of 

 grouse and a hare to our three guns by the time we 

 sat down for half an hour's rest and luncheon at one 

 o'clock. 



George O'D., the youngest of the party, who was 

 without a gun, had selected an excellent site by a purl- 

 ing mountain stream, where we sat down and discussed 

 sandwiches, whisky, and tobacco for half an hour. 

 Resuming our way, we climbed a little higher up the 

 mountain, and, as afternoon wore on, sport became 

 a trifle better. A pack of eight grouse, from which 

 I extracted a single bird, went lower down the moun- 

 tain, and afforded several successful shots to D. and 

 O'D., who were below me. I climbed yet higher with 

 the keeper, Pat MacManaman, and presently came to 

 a wild angle of the mountain, amid the rocks of which 

 the hill foxes made their dens. Pat is, of course, death 

 on these creatures in a country where no legitimate 

 fox-hunter can ever penetrate. He described to me, 

 with infinite zest and spirit, how he occasionally cir- 



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