CH. V. BEN LAIGHAL FOXES. 67 



the ground, and even the ferns and some other wild 

 plants near the waterside were entirely blackened. 

 A hard white frost at this season is always supposed 

 to be followed by heavy rain, and the saying was 

 this time quite correct. 



On our road to Tongue the following day I 

 stopped for an hour or two about Loch Laiehal, 

 one of the most beautiful of the lakes in Suther- 

 land. Ben Laighal is a fine and picturesque moun- 

 tain, and of great extent. We learned at a shepherd's 

 house that the fox-hunter of that district had been 

 up on the mountain since three o'clock in pursuit of 

 some foxes who had estabhshed themselves in the 

 rocky corries near the summit, and had commenced 

 killing the old sheep. It is not tlie general custom 

 of foxes to destroy the old and full-grown sheep 

 where lambs are plentiful ; but a colony or pair of 

 foxes having once commenced this habit, the mis- 

 chief and havoc which they commit are beyond cal- 

 culation, more particularly as they seldom tear or 

 eat much of so large an animal, but feed on the 

 blood. According to the accounts of the shep- 

 herds the foxes of Ben Laighal are very prone to 

 this kind of prey, and kill the old sheep in prefer- 

 ence to lambs or game. 



The foxes in the Highland districts must fre- 

 quently be put to many shifts for their living, and 



