8'8 
MAMMALS. 
the remains of an old stone dyke, and one wonders what 
could be the use of such a thing in such an apparently use- 
less place for one ; this is all that is left of what once was 
a deer-trap. The deer were driven up the hill between 
the two dykes, which are very wide apart at the entrance, 
and then gradually contracted, ending in a regular cul-de-sac ; 
and there being no escape, unless it were over a precipice, 
the unfortunate animals were then slaughtered. Mr. 
Houstoun tells us that there is a very similar trap in the 
Dunrobin Forest on the rocky hill south of Cor Eshach ; nor, 
do we believe, are these the only two in the county. 
In Brawl Castle are some very fine red-deer heads, which 
have been taken out of the peat-mosses. One obtained at 
Dorrery Hill about twenty years ago numbers thirteen 
points, and there are many others in the collection, but, 
unfortunately, no precise records of them have been kept. 
Of these, several number thirteen and fourteen points. The 
only forest in the county is that of the Duke of Portland, 
at Langwell, and the original part has been largely aug- 
mented within the last five or six years by the addition of 
Braemore. There are also a few deer at Sandside in the 
Eeay district, in the north-west of the county, but the 
greater part of Caithness is ill adapted for them, and they 
rarely leave the forest for the flat flow-ground. They have, 
however, been seen as far out as Wick {New Stat. Ace, 1845), 
' whilst Mr. Eeid informs us that a full-grown stag was seen 
' for a day or two last spring (1885) on the flat ground of 
' Canisbay, within a few miles of John o' Groat's. 
57. Cervus dama, jL. Fallow-Deer. 
In a letter from Sheriff Mackenzie, dated 24th February 1884, 
he says of the fallow-deer : — 
" They must have been brought there (Dornoch woods) 
• in Dempster's time, more than forty years ago, and I have 
