310 FIELD AND FERN. 



grazier of sprittle-faces and Galloways^ and a fre- 

 quent judge at the Highland Society^s shows^ grazes 

 a considerable portion of the hill and valley 

 ground at Finnart. He does not breed Galloways ; 

 but his flock of sprittle-faced ewes number thirty 

 score. Ayrshire Laddie of his breeding won a 

 first prize in Mr. Dryfe's hands at Battersea ; and 

 the Captain has shown and won at Ayr^ Glasgow, and 

 Aberdeen sometimes with his rams, but more fre- 

 quently with ewe hoggs. He generally buys his 

 Galloway stores in September, and keeps them for 

 one-and-a-half years. They are bought when they 

 are nearly that age as " caddaghs,^^ in September, at 

 Dumfries, and up and down the Stewartry. The 

 sky and the hills of the glen are their only winter 

 shelter; and however deep the snow may be they are 

 kept out in the field, with oat straw, turnips, and 

 hay. In Dumfriesshire yard-keeping is generally 

 adopted ; but the Captain's experience is to the eff'ect 

 that unsheltered bullocks come to hand quicker in 

 the spring than if they have the shed option. 

 Messrs. M'Combie and Heath, the great Aberdeen 

 and Norfolk feeders, have been his leading cus- 

 tomers. For many years Mr. M^Combie took forty 

 at a time, and in his lot of 1859 he got the Smithfield 

 and Birmingham prize-bullock, which was bred by 

 Mr. Martin of Braco. Mr. Heath has dealt very 

 largely with him of late. 



Stranraer was of all towns the most dreary on a 

 wet morning ; and watching the oyster-boats iu the 



