56 IV/LD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



showing them if possible, in order that their names may not 

 be known. If they shoot on ground where the watchers know 

 them, they take great care to avoid being seen. If they think 

 there is any likeHhood of a prosecution occurring, they betake 

 themselves to a different part of the country till the storm is 

 blown over. In some of the wide mountain districts, a band of 

 poachers can shoot the whole season without being caught, and 

 I fancy that many of the keepers, and even their masters, rather 

 wish to shut their eyes to the trespassing of these gangs as long 

 as they keep to certain districts, and do not interfere with those 

 parts of the grouse-ground which , are the most carefully pre- 

 served. 



Some proprietors or lessees of shooting-grounds make a 

 kind of half-compromise with the poachers, by allowing them 

 to kill grouse as long as they do not touch the deer ; others, 

 who are grouse-shooters, let them kill the deer to save their 

 birds. I have known an instance where a prosecution was 

 stopped by the aggrieved party being quietly made to 

 understand, that if it was carried on, " a score of lads fnom 

 the hills would shoot over his ground for the rest of the 

 season." 



In the eastern part of the Highlands and on the hills adjoin- 

 ing the Highland roads, the grand harvest of the poachers 

 arises from grouse, which are shipped by the steamers, and sent 

 by the coaches southwards, in numbers that are almost incred- 

 ible. Before the I2th of August, hundreds of grouse are 

 shipped, to be ready in London on the first day that they 

 become legal food for her Majesty's subjects. In these districts 

 the poachers kill the deer only for their amusement, or to repay 

 the obliging blindness and silence of shepherds and others. 

 Many a fine stag is either shot or killed by dogs during the 

 winter season ; — the proprietor, or person who rents the forest, 

 supposing that his paying half-a-dozen watchers and foresters 

 ensures the safety of his deer. 



" Indeed, his lordship has seven foresters," said a Highlander 

 to me ; " but they are mostly old men, and not that fit for 

 catching the likes of me ; besides which, if we leave the forest 

 quiet during the time his lordship's down, they are not that 

 over hard on us ; nor are we sair on their deer either, for they 

 are all ceevil enough, except the head forester, who is an 



