CUMYN'S CAIRN. 145 



England profited of its hospitality, and participated in its 

 amusements ; thus there never was a day in the season when 

 the wind was favourable, in which the deer were not dis- 

 turbed to the utmost limit that the forest would admit of. 

 Some of the best harts were killed off, to the number of 100 

 or 130, or perhaps more, in each season ; and many others, 

 I imagine (aud these the largest), found their position so 

 unquiet, that they sought the forests of Gaig and Braemar, 

 and deserted that of Atholl, where they were continually 

 driven, and kept in a state cf perpetual alarm. It is evident 

 that no animal could arrive at his proper dimensions under 

 such harassing circumstances. 



But many people were deceived as to the actual size of 

 the Atholl harts, from the custom of reckoning by Dutch 

 weight, whilst others used the imperial. Now as Dutch 

 weight is seventeen ounces and a half to the pound, and 

 sixteen pounds to the stone, the difference is most material. 

 The weight, too, was given not as the deer stood, but after 

 he had been gralloched. 



But if the pastures are fine, the ground also is in all 

 other respects the most favourable that can be imagined for 

 a forest. Mountains of various altitude, open sunny corries, 

 deep glens and ravines, holes for solitary harts to hide in, 

 and numerous rolling pools, burns also and rivers, and large 

 pine woods to shelter them during the inclement season. 



The two highest mountains in the forest are Ben-y-gloe 

 and Ben Dairg, or the Red Mountain. Ben-y-gloe is of vast 

 magnitude, and comprehends a little territory within itself, 

 stretching its huge limbs far and wide. It is computed to 

 be twenty-four Scotch miles in circumference, and it con- 

 tains twenty-four corries ; these corries are separated from 

 each other by such high ridges, that a person standing in 

 one of them could not hear a shot fired in the next. The 

 highest point of the mountain is Cairn-ua-gowr, or the 

 Goat's Hill, which is 3725 feet above the level of the sea. 

 On the eastern side of Ben-y-gloe lies Loch Loch, abounding 

 in char and trout; and near it stands Cumyn's Cairn, con- 

 cerning which tradition has given us the following story : 



About the beginning of the thirteenth century the autho- 

 rity of the district was divided between the family of 



