HIND-SHOOTING. 59 



the satisfaction of knowing that, directly or indirectly, 

 for many miles round, all the working bees of the 

 neighbourhood will be more or less benefited. There 

 are no co-operative stores in the Highlands : farmers, 

 foresters, keepers, gillies, pony-men, labourers, butchers, 

 bakers, and washerwomen, and all the hundred and one 

 suppliers of the necessaries and comforts which go to 

 make up the whole harmonious working of a large 

 establishment, will each and all be gainers by the forest. 

 The landlord also contributes his share to the wide- 

 spread expenditure ; he will have the house to keep in 

 repair, roads to mend, and fresh pony tracks to make, 

 and generally to keep everything in good working 

 order a matter which will often make a big hole in 

 his apparently large rental. 



Hind shooting is by no means a sport to be despised. 

 They are more difficult to approach than stags, but from 

 their greater numbers, stalks and shots are plentiful, and 

 it greatly improves one's shooting, as there is not the 

 same anxiety to kill as the presence of a good stag gives 

 rise to ; also there is plenty of practise at running shots, 

 without any occasion to be very down-hearted at a miss. 



It is often supposed that the foresters pick off none 

 but " yeld " or barren hinds, but it would be impossible 

 to kill a hundred of these in any forest; and as the 

 venison is mostly given away to all and every one 

 living on the edge of it, the very thin, weakly hinds 

 are seldom in much danger from the rifle. Unlike 

 cattle, sheep, and grouse, deer are not liable to become 

 the victims of any disease which kills them off by 

 hundreds, and there need be no anxiety on that head. 



