WYVIS, AND THE LATE MR. HORATIO ROSS 335 



of interfering with the rights of the crofters, for they 

 have been made tools of by the agitators ; and no 

 matter how much good one may try to do them, they 

 do not or will not appreciate it ; at all events, not 

 for some time. 



In the drive back to Garve there was nothing but 

 forests all round us. Ben More, Ben Goblach, Ben 

 Damp, Ben VVyvis, Braemore, etc. Wyvis once 

 belonged to my dear old friend the late Horatio Ross, 

 the king of stalkers, and so well known as the oldest 

 stalker in the Highlands. It remains for a more 

 competent person than I am to furnish his biography, 

 for I could not do justice to it without access to the 

 many records which doubtless exist, and might, I 

 think, well be published, as being so full of interest. 

 He made many a well-known wager, and it is also 

 notorious that his sons are as good shots as their 

 father ; I only hope that they may give the public the 

 benefit of his life. 



The year following my visit to Rhidoroch I had 

 some good stalking in the Glendoe forest, and out of a 

 limit of forty-five I obtained three good heads ; there 

 was hardly a bad head shot, but three were very fine 

 heads. This forest, having been newly made; had 

 never been let before. The only fault I had to find 

 with it being that it was overstocked with deer, a fault 

 on the right side, perhaps, since the ground which 

 joins it, having been cleared, has been stocked with 

 plenty of good stags. I very much enjoyed stalking 

 in this forest, as when one had ascended the hills the 

 ground was so perfect that any novice could stalk 

 alone, excepting where open or exposed, as on 

 Crairlie Moss, where we had to crawl from half-past 



