46 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [cHap. v. 
could na do it, like wise chiels, they didn’t try—so I wished 
them a good day, and took the road. I had my gun and four 
brace of grouse, which they looked at very hard indeed, but I did 
not let them Jay hands on any thing. When I had just got a few 
hundred yards away, I missed my shot belt, so I went back and 
found that the keeper had it, and would not give it up. ‘ You'll 
be giving me my property, lad, I’m thinking,’ I said tohim; but 
he was just mad like with rage, and said that he would not let 
me have it. However, I took him by the coat and shook him a 
bit, and he soon gave it me, but he could na’ keep his hands off, 
and as I turned away, he struck me a sair blow with a stick on 
my back ; so I turned to him, and deed I was near beating him 
weel, but after all I thoch’t that the poor lad was only doing his 
duty, so I only gave him a lift into the burn, taking care not to 
hurt him; but he got a grand ducking—and, Lord ! how he did 
swear. I was thinking, as I travelled over the hills that day, it 
was lucky that these twa dogs were not with me, for there would 
have been wild work in the shealing. Bran there canna bide a 
scuffle but what he must join in it, and the other dog would go 
to help him; and the Lord pity the man they took hold of—he 
would be in a bad way before I could get this one off his throat 
—-wouldn’t he, poor dog? ”—and Bran looked up in Ronald’s 
face with such a half lear, half snake-like expression, that I 
thought to myself, that I would about as soon encounter a tiger 
as such a dog, if his blood was well roused. 
The life of a Highland poacher is a far different one from that 
of an Englishman following the same profession. Instead of a 
sneaking night-walking ruffian, a mixture of cowardice and 
ferocity, as most English poachers are, and ready to commit any 
crime that he hopes to perpetrate with impunity, the High- 
lander is a bold fearless fellow, shooting openly by daylight, 
taking his sport in the same manner as the Laird, or the 
Sassenach who rents the ground. He never snares or wires 
game, but depends on his dog and gun. Hardy and active as 
the deer of the mountain, in company with two or three com- 
rades of the same stamp as himself, he sleeps in the heather 
wrapped in his plaid, regardless of frost or snow, and commences 
his wor« at daybreak. When a party of them sleep out on the 
hill side, their manner of arranging their couch is as follows: 
