267 



been such weather as has pleased everybody except the Highland hotel- 

 keeper, who looks upon the Sassenach as a fair subject for spoliation, and 

 who got his house early in order in hopes of making tbe nn'St of him. But 

 the visitor did not come any the earlier on that account. Hence the grumbles. 



One effect of the unprecedented weather has been that the season is every- 

 where six weeks earlier than last year. The hills on which you look to 

 have the heather in full bloom in the beginning of September, have been 

 ablaze with purple since the beginning of July. The sportsman has every 

 right to expect a good time. 



There is only one thing which may have the effect of chastening his 

 hopes. A party of respectable and worthy gentlemen, headed by a sheriff 

 and two M.P.'s, and called Deer Forest Commissioners, have been going 

 about the northern counties for the last three months, and there are some 

 ardent people who foresee in their proceedings the early extinction of 

 wild sport in the north highlands. They have been commissioned to 

 inquire "whether any, and if so, what lands" appropriated to grazing 

 or sporting purposes in the highlands are capable of being "advan- 

 tageously occupied by crofters or other small tenants," and in the 

 sweltering heat of June and July, arrayed ofttimes in outlandish costume 

 befitting a Wild West show, they have tramped the heather in search of 

 such land, while startled hinds and whirring grouse have fled in terror at 

 their approach. Whatever the Deer Forest Commissioflers may have to 

 recommend, or the Government who appointed them are prepared to carry 

 out, the sportsman may find a grain of consolation in the fact that of the 

 two and a half millions of acres devoted to sporting purposes in the crofter 

 counties the Commission, in the better part of a working year, have not 

 been able to overtake a fourth part, so that he may lay his plans with 

 assurance for some years to come. 



In discussing the sporting prospects in the North a sharp distinction must 

 be dra%vn between the areas devoted to deer forest and the ordinary grouse 

 moors. Most of the deer forests have low ground shootings attached to 

 them, but it is as deer forests that they are organised, and everything is 

 sacrificed to that Royal sport. In Argyle, Inverness, Ross, Sutherland, and 

 Caithness there is not much else in the way of sporting territory except deer 

 forests, and these extend to not far short of two millions of acres held by 

 about a hundred persons. In the deer forests grouse and other small game 

 are looked upon as a nuisance to be kept under at any cost. At the critical 

 moment of the stalk, the whirr of a grouse, or the rousing of a mountain 

 hare may spoil the result of a day's work by putting the stag on the alert, 

 and the gamekeeper, when he falls in with them, shows them no mercj*. 

 For the same reason the eagle, the fox, and other natural enemies of ground 

 game are encouraged to thrive in the forests, and the seclusion of these vast 

 areas is also enabling the marten and the badger, which have been regarded 

 in some places as practicallj^ extinct, again to increase in numbers. 



For the deer the season has been an exceptionally favourable one. The herds 

 are numerous, and the calves have progressed so well that already they are 

 almost as big as their mothers. The stags at this season of the year have a 

 habit of keeping pretty much to themselves and well out of sight in the 

 high grounds ; but they are reported to be in grand condition and unusually 

 well advanced. The sportsman has therefore good reason to expect that hig 



