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mountains, which are from 1,000 to 4,000 feet high, a great deal of 

 which are rocky or heather-clad, and in winter these regions for many 

 months are covered with snow. They are proverbial for thunderstorms, 

 and the consequential rainfalls cause torrents to tear down the steeps 

 and flood the glens. Where the valleys are sheltered and not flooded 

 the snow lies deep, and often does not disappear till late in the spring. 

 These wild regions are far removed from populous parts, and connected 

 thereto only by the very worst of roads. 



Moreover, while the lowland Scotchman is about the best agricul- 

 turist in the world, and prides himself in the vocation, a Highlander 

 hates farming or any work requiring hard labour, and being an inborn 

 sportsman much prefers to earn his livelihood out of shooting and 

 fishing. 



No doubt large tracts of land can be found among the shootings 

 which are of a quality excellent for tillage, while here and there are 

 patches varying in small extent which, in olden times, were cultivated. 

 Hills covered with good grass and extending over thousands of acres 

 are sometimes seen which would, under favourable circumstances, 

 afford a profitable undertaking through grazing of sheep and cattle. 

 They, too, were let to tenants for the pasturage, but although the 

 rent charged for the arable land ranged from only 5s. to 15s. an acre, 

 and the grazing sixpence to a shilling an acre, a dead loss was sustained 

 to both farmer and grazier. That being so it is manifest if crofters had 

 the land for nothing nowadays they could not even live out of it. 



The rent now paid for deer forests, including of course all the bad as 

 well as the good land, is about Is. 6d. an acre, and by reason of employ- 

 ment thereon and the grouse moors the Highlanders are not alone far 

 away better off than they could possibly be by farming, but derive their 

 money from a vocation they much prefer. To substitute farming for 

 shooting would, of course, change for the bad this happy state of affairs, 

 and would raise the rates to double or treble what they are at present, 

 while, of course, the incomes of the landlords would be reduced to a 

 quarter of what they are. 



No man with capital, if in his senses, would think of embarking it in 

 farming among the Highland shootings ; therefore, to populate these 

 tracts with crofters the Grovernment would have to find the capital, and 

 when found it would, in a few years, be entirely lost. This is in 

 evidence from the miserable state in which the small farmers live in 

 the Highlands who have not steady employment on the shootings and 

 fishings. 



Over some of the Highland properties a great deal of employment is 

 given by the proprietors. In making roads, fences, planting trees, and 

 drainage, thousands upon thousands of pounds are expended every 

 year. Some of the territorial owners have individually, within the 

 past twenty years, expended in labour, consequent upon these im- 

 provements, amounts varying from £10,000 to nearly £100,000. 



This vast expenditure was nearly all occasioned by reason of the 



