CH. X. VALUE OF HORNS. 151 



Inverness, or even to sportsmen who, taking the 

 stag's head to England with them, pass it off as a 

 trophy of their own skill and prowess. I have known 

 instances of this kind, although it is difficult to 

 understand how a man can exhibit as his own shoot- 

 ing, and nail up over his hall-door, a stag's head, 

 which he has bought for three or four pounds in- 

 stead of shooting it, without being ashamed to be- 

 hold such a memento of his own weakness and want 

 of good faith. 



In my opinion, the general run of the old stags' 

 heads in Sutherlandshire are the handsomest of 

 any in Scotland, in the way the horns are set on 

 the head and in the shape of the horns themselves. 

 The largest and oldest heads that I have seen in 

 that county form a fine, widely-stretched circle, the 

 tops of the antlers arching inwards towards each 

 other. I never myself saw horns with so fine a 

 spread and arch in any other county, though I do 

 not pretend to say that such may not be seen else- 

 where. A nobler sight than a herd of well-antlered 

 stags standing clearly defined on the horizon, and 

 combined with the surrounding scenery and all the 

 et cceteras of the country which they inhabit, can 

 scarcely be imagined. On the wide grassy plains 

 between Loch Shin and Aultnaharrow, and between 

 Ben Hee and Ben Cleebrick, I have generally seen 



