V ANCIENT POACHERS 59 



the flash of the gun, dart off at first in all directions ; but soon 

 collecting together, they can be heard in the still night, for 

 some time after they are lost to view, going up the hill side at 

 a steady gallop. The poacher rushes up to the stag, who is 

 now nearly motionless, only showing symptoms of life by his 

 loud, deep breathing, and an occasional quiver of his limbs, as 

 his life is opzing rapidly away in streams of blood. The skene 

 dhu, plunged into the root of his neck, and reaching to his 

 heart, soon ends his struggles ; and before the next morning 

 the carcass is carried off and cut up. Many a noble stag falls 

 in this way. Near the Caledonian Canal, which affords great 

 facility of carriage, the Lochaber poachers kill a considerable 

 number during the season, sending them to Edinburgh, Glasgow, 

 or other large towns, where they have some confidential friend 

 to receive and sell them. In Edinburgh, there are numbers ot 

 men who work as porters, etc., during the winter, and poach in 

 the Highlands during the autumn. When in town, these men 

 are useful to their friends on the hills in disposing of their 

 game, which is all killed for the purpose of being sent away, 

 and not for consumption in the country. 



Many poachers of the class I have here described are ot 

 respectable origin, and are well enough educated. When my 

 aforesaid acquaintance Ronald called on me, he had a neat 

 kind of wallet with his dry hose, a pair of rather smart worsted- 

 worked slippers (he did not seem disposed to tell me what fair 

 hands had worked them), and clean linen, etc. He wore also 

 a small French gold watch, which had also been given him. 

 Several of the Highlanders who have lived in this way emigrate 

 to Canada, and generally do well ; others get places as foresters 

 and keepers, making the best and most faithful servants. Their 

 old allies seldom annoy them when they take to this profession, 

 as there is a great deal of good feeling amongst them, and a 

 sense of right, which prevents their thinking the worse of their 

 quondam comrade because he does his duty in his new line of 

 life. 



There is another class of hill poacher — the old, half worn- 

 out Highlander, who has lived and shot on the mountain 

 befoii, the times of letting shooting-grounds and strict preserv- 

 ing had come in. These old men, with their long single- 

 .barrelled gun, kill many a deer and grouse, though not in a 



