36 



MAMMALS. 



A good account of the old method of driving Deer in the forest 

 of Atholl and also a list of the forests of Perthshire is given in many 

 works, amongst which see Agriculture of Perthshire (p. 328). 



To show upon what a large scale preparations were made when 

 the Duke of Atholl called his men and neighbours together for a 

 great " Tinchel " or Deer-hunt, I quote from the Gleanings from the 

 Clunie Charter Chest : "In 1711. — Another great Deer-hunt took place 

 in this year on August 17, when orders were issued to the parishes 

 of Blair and Strouan, IMoulin, Kirkmichael, Taywood, and forest of 

 Cluny, Glenalmond, Guy, Kilmorich, Logierait, Fortingall, Weem, 

 Strathtummel, Dull, and Balwhidder, desiring the vassals and 

 fencible men out of every merkland to parade at Blair Castle on 

 August 21, in the evening. The hunting began at Benagloe on 

 Wednesday 22nd, when no Deer were killed ; on Thursday in Carn 

 Eigh, where there were twenty-five Deer killed ; and on Friday in 

 Ben Yourich, where thirty-two were killed." 



The above and much other matter has already been quoted from 

 these old documents by Mr. Chas. Fergusson, in an article which 

 contains great store of old materials.^ 



Scrope defined the area of the forest of Atholl as about forty 

 miles by eighteen — giving 134,000 to 134,458 acres ; and goes on to 

 say, "and the additional acreages occupied by grouse." Deer 

 exclusively occupied 51,708 acres imperial. In 1776 Deer did not 

 exceed a hundred in number; but by 1838 Scrope estimated their 

 number at from five to six thousand. Other individuals estimated 

 them at seven thousand.^ 



Most interesting is the collection of cast horns — a consecutive set 

 of which is preserved in the Blair Castle — to show the annual 

 improvements, experimentally performed, of giving certain kinds of 

 food to a Stag, the principle of which was to supply abundance of 

 lime-containing material — powdered deer-horns, in fact. 



In 1799 the Agricultural Survey states that Ked Deer are not so 

 numerous in the county of Perth as formerly, and speaks of the 

 forest of Atholl and the confines of the shires of Inverness and 

 Aberdeen as their principal haunts, and the Duke of Atholl allots 

 many thousands of acres to his Deer ; and then follows the relation 



1 "Sketches of the Early History, Legends, and Traditions of Strathardle and its 

 Glens" {Trans, of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, vol. xxiii. pp. 154-78), 



- Those who cannot refer to Scrope's Days and Nights of Deer-Stalking direct, will 

 find an excellent review in the Edinburgh Beview of April 1840. 



