254 A WELL-MANAGED AFFAIR 



the likely passes that every keeper tackled his man, 

 and the whole lot of them were taken. This occur- 

 rence took place some years ago on the Countess 

 of Seafield's estate ; the head-keeper then, as now, 

 being Mr. Templeton, and one of the brilliant excep- 

 tions to the majority of Scotch keepers. True, there 

 are plenty of hill-keepers who are excellent at hill- 

 work; but when it comes to night-netting, which is 

 generally carried on in the low grounds, and goes on 

 more or less throughout the season, they are unable 

 to cope with it. Hill-netting does not pay after birds 

 get wild, unless poachers use the expensive, long 

 sky-line nets, when of course the wilder the birds are, 

 the better for their purpose. There are a great 

 number of local poachers who can do a deal of harm 

 in a very scientific manner with the use of common 

 garden fruit-nets, and they have committed sad havoc 

 in several districts during the last five or six years. 

 It is utterly useless to expect a keeper to take these 

 gangs without help, for the poachers know the ground 

 far better than the keepers, and can run him out of 

 sight in no time, besides which, some of these local 

 men are the most desperate characters to be met with 

 anywhere. I had the good luck to catch some of 

 them ; and I learnt a good deal more than it is possible 

 to refer to in these pages. The system of netting as 

 carried on in the low grounds for every kind of game 

 is most destructive, and ere long every Highland 

 village will possess its gang of netters ; for the trade 

 is a paying one, and the steadier the hands so em- 

 ployed, the more successful the raid is, and the 

 more easily the game is distributed to the different 

 stations for transmission to the southern dealers. 



