6o WILD SPOUTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



wholesale manner, hunting more from ancient habit and for 

 their own use than for the market. I have met some quaint 

 old fellows of this description, who make up by cunning and 

 knowledge of the ground for want of strength and activity. I 

 made acquaintance with an old soldier, who after some years' 

 service had returned to his native mountains, and to his former 

 habits of poaching and wandering about in search of deer. He 

 lived in the midst of plenty of them too, in a far-off and very 

 lonely part of Scotland, where the keepers of the property 

 seldom came. When they did so, I believe they frequently 

 took the old man out with them to assist in killing a stag for 

 their master. At other times he wandered through the moun- 

 tains with a single-barrelled gun, killing what deer he wanted 

 for his own use, but never selling them. I never in my life 

 saw a better shot with a ball : I have seen him constantly kill 

 grouse and plovers on the ground. His occupation, I fear, is 

 at last gone, owing to changes in the ownership and the letting 

 of the shooting, for the last time I heard of him he was leading 

 an honest life as cattle-keeper. 



When this man killed a deer far from home, he used to go 

 to the nearest shepherd's shealing, catch the horse, which was 

 sure to be found feeding near at hand, and make use of it to 

 carry home the deer. This done, he turned the horse's head 

 home, and let it loose, and as all Highland ponies have the 

 bump of locality strongly developed, it was sure to find its way 

 home. I have known one of these old poachers coolly ride his 

 pony up the mountain from which he intended to take a deer, 

 turn it loose, and proceed on his excursion. The pony, as 

 cunning and accustomed to the work as his master, would 

 graze quietly near the spot where he was left, till his services 

 were required to take home the booty at night. The old man 

 never went to the hill till he had made sure of the whereabouts 

 of the forester, by which means he always escaped detection. 



The principal object of pursuit of the Highland poacher, 

 next to grouse and deer, are ptarmigan, as these birds always 

 bring a high price, and by making choice of good weather and 

 knowing where to find the birds, a man can generally make up 

 a bag that repays him for his day's labour, as well as for his 

 powder and shot. Being sportsmen by nature, as well as 

 poachers, they enjoy the wild variety of a day's ptarmigan- 



