100 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS.  [cHapP. xu. 
nearly all gone, “ puir beasties.” ‘ Well, but what good could 
the otters do you?” T asked her. ‘ Good, your honour? why 
scarcely a morn came but they left a bonny grilse on the scarp 
down yonder, and the vennison was none the waur of the 
bit, the puir beasts eat themselves.” The people here call 
every eatable animal, fish, flesh, or fowl, venison, or as they pro- 
nounce it, “‘ vennison.” For instance they tell you that the 
snipes are “good vennison,” or that the trout are not good 
“vennison” in the winter. 
It seems that a few years ago, before the otters had been so 
much destroyed, the people on particular parts of the river were 
never at a loss for salmon, as the otters always take them ashore, 
and generally to the same bank or rock, and when the fish are 
plenty, they only eat a small piece out of the shoulder of each, , 
leaving the rest. The cottagers, aware of this, were in the habit 
of looking every morning for these remains. 
