370 AN OLD AND O VER- CANNY STAG 



deer also visit the ground, there must be some of the 

 finest wild heads in Scotland to be got, owing to the 

 long jubilee of nine years which Mr. Winans has given 

 his deer. It appears that this liberal gentleman has 

 given up deer-driving, and has very much improved 

 the herds on many forests, such as Kintail, Corry- 

 nachoalan, Fasnakyle, Corrie Hallie, Cannick, Dorus- 

 duan, the south side of Glasletter, Glen Affrick, 

 Glomack, Luibnadamp. No man ever before owned 

 such an amount of forests, not since the days of our 

 forefathers, when one might shoot over the whole of 

 the Highlands without let or hindrance, save from the 

 poachers of those days. 



The foregoing list of enclosed forests will give the 

 reader some idea of the number of deer I saw, and 

 which were trying to get to Attadale, Morna, and 

 South Conon. Now that they have been allowed to 

 get away, some fine heads have been killed by some 

 of my friends, so that I am as well rewarded as if I 

 had secured them myself. 



Though I had killed eleven very fat stags at Paat, 

 my mouth watered to stalk one or two magnificent 

 beasts, one a fourteen pointer as big in the horn as an 

 elk. I wasted four days trying to stalk him, but could 

 not succeed. These stags at any time take good care 

 of themselves, and keep to the centre of the herd, but 

 •every time I moved I came across scores of deer, and 

 as for grouse, as an Irishman once expressed himself 

 to me, 'They darkened the sun every five minutes.' 

 The number of grouse was due to the sudden snow- 

 storm in the early part of the season having driven 

 them down on Paat from the higher ground for shelter* 

 There was this big stag and four others, and there was 



