THE RARER ANIMALS OF SCOTLAND. 89 
twenty years ago (say 1860—62) a number of Martens were 
killed at Dundonnel, and the late Miss Mackenzie, of Dundonnel, 
gave me a number of skins. When my mother, Dowager Lady 
Mackenzie, of Gairloch, was managing that estate for my brother, 
Sir Kenneth Mackenzie, who was then a minor, she used to get 
about thirty or forty Martens’ skins every year, chiefly from 
the natural pine-woods of Kinloch Ewe. At Bein Damph, 
Torridon, Mr. Duncan Darrochs, keeper, killed two Martens two 
years ago.” ‘They have long been plentiful about Torridon, 
as the fir plantations are specially attractive. Mr. J. Colquhoun 
tells me that in 1863 six were trapped at Torridon in the winter 
time. They were described to Mr. E. R. Alston in August, 1880, 
as “almost, if not quite, extinct” now in the Loch Maree district. 
In Fannich Forest it is believed to be extinct. The present 
forester, a most observant naturalist, has never seen one there. It 
is believed to be extinct also in the East of Rosshire. In Strath 
Conan the Marten was very abundant at one time, but none have 
been seen there for twenty years (say 1860). The last killed was 
about that time. It had a white breast. 
Harris and Lewis.—About twenty years ago they were abun- 
dant (say 1860). About five years ago (1875), when Mr. O. H. 
Mackenzie was stalking deer in Sir James Matheson’s Forest of 
Mhorsgail, in The Lews, he met with a dead Marten, which had 
lost its life in a somewhat singular manner. I quote here 
Mr. Mackenzie’s own words :—“ I suddenly came to a place where 
there was a lot of wool scattered about, and there was every 
appearance of there having been a struggle between a sheep and 
some other animal. I knew there were a few stray sheep in the 
forest, but knowing there were no foxes in the island, we thought 
this sheep must have been attacked by an Eagle. I continued 
my stalk. About one hundred yards from where we found 
the wool I came upon a large Cheviot wedder lying dead, with its 
head down hill, and its shoulder jammed up against a stone 
which was sticking out of a bank. In passing I gave the fore- 
quarters of the sheep (which appeared to have been dead about a 
fortnight) a kick, and under its shoulder and neck lay a dead 
Marten. The wedder, in rushing madly down hill with the 
Marten at its throat, had dashed itself against the sharp stone, 
which killed the Marten. The sheep’s throat being cut, it had 
not had strength to get upon its legs, but bled to death where it 
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