From Fox's Earth 



out of the common. It was one less. Other 

 hall tables had the same burden. And so from 

 district to district was the marten wiped out. 



In 1883 one was seen in Faskally Wood. 

 Where is it now ? Wandering, doubtless, in 

 denser shades, where, by a law of compensation 

 found in most things, it may be hunting its 

 earthly hunters, or waiting for such as are still 

 busy here. Are any abroad in Faskally Wood 

 to-day? If so, is it intended that they shall 

 remain ? Of creatures once found anywhere 

 to surprise one in Barcaldine, and another in 

 Faskally, at an interval of eighteen years, only 

 intensifies the desolation over the rest of the land 

 and the barbarity of the persecution. No van- 

 dalism is ever so thorough that it leaves no ruin, 

 and the ruin certainly does not lessen the sense 

 of the vandalism. Is it not needed to aid the 

 imagination ? One would rather not rake up 

 instances of how many the shooters notwith- 

 standing their training with the gun have 

 missed, to modify the indictment. 



At Knoydart, in 1898, a keeper had six skins, 

 taken from animals trapped during the preceding 

 winter. " But being aware," says a distinguished 

 naturalist to whom they were shown, " how surely 

 the progeny of the homely tabby reverts to the 

 native type in size, in the shape of the tail, in the 

 colour and quality of the fur, I suspended judg- 

 ment." Is it right to talk of reverting to the 



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