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AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

THE SALMON

BY THE

HON. A. E. GATHORNE-HARDY

"With Chapters on the Law of Salmon Fishing by

Claud Douglas Pennant ; Cookery, by

Alexander Innes Shand.

With 8 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 5s.

In the "Fur, Feather, and Fin Series."

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Page 209

AUTUMNS IN ARGYLE-
SHIRE WITH ROD &

GUN. BY THE HON. A. E.
GATHORNE-HARDY

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
ARCHIBALD THORBURN

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 1900

All rights reserved

AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

TO

JOHN WINGFIELD MALCOLM

FIRST LORD MALCOLM OF POLTALLOCH

810838

PREFACE

Most of the following sketches were originally
published in the National Review and the Bad-
minton Magazine, and in a special Christmas
number of Rod and Gun. I desire to thank
the publishers of those periodicals for permission
to reproduce them in a collected form. I have
revised the whole, and added an introductory
chapter and a new article ; but, while I have
omitted repetitions and corrected some mistakes,
I have not thought it desirable to rewrite much,
as I desire to convey to my readers the fresh
impressions produced upon my own mind at
the time by various days' sports in the West
Highlands.

CONTENTS

PACK

CHAPTER I,
POLTALLOCH 1

CHAPTER II.

FALLOW-DEER AT HOME 22

CHAPTER III.
CHASING THE ROE 42

CHAPTER IV.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF DEER-STALKING ... 57

CHAPTER V.

THE HERDS OF PROTEUS 72

CHAPTER VI.
A DAY WITH A SEAL 87

CHAPTER VII.
OUT OF THE DEPTHS 103

CHAPTER VIII.
WESTERN WATERS 136

x CONTENTS

PAOB

CHAPTER IX.
NIL DESPERANDUM 153

CHAPTER X.
A DAY WITH THE GRILSE 163

CHAPTER XL
LOCH-NA-LARICH 176

CHAPTER XII.

GROUSE 186

CHAPTER XIII.
GROUSE-DRIVING 201

CHAPTER XIV.
CHILL OCTOBER 211

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

AN IMPROVISED DRIVE Frontispiece

WILD-CAT ON THE WATCH to face page 10

THE HAUNT OF THE ROE
SOME SHOOTABLE BEASTS
A SEAL-HAUNTED ROCK .
PLENTY OF TIME I .
A CAPITAL POINT
THE OLD RIVER .

42

61

96

169

197

217

AUTUMNS IN AKGYLESHIKE
WITH EOD AND' GUN

CHAPTER I

POLTALLOCH

It was in 1846, more than half a century ago, that
Charles St. John published his " Wild Sports of
the Highlands," a collection of sketches of sport
and natural history which still holds the field as
one of the masterpieces of sporting literature. If
I hope that my random sketches of a later period
may prove of some interest, I trust I may be
acquitted of the presumption of challenging direct
comparison with a classic of such well-merited
fame. In addition to the qualifications of un-
rivalled power of observation, and an easy and
luminous style, St. John enjoyed the advantage of
a comparatively untrodden field, whereas there are
now few indeed of those who care for sport who
are not familiar with many parts of the Highlands.
Still an experience of more than thirty years,
mainly in one district peculiarly favourably situated
for the enjoyment of almost every variety of High-

A

2 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

land sport, and the study of wild nature in many
aspects, may be my justification for submitting my
rough sketches to the public in a collected form,
and, like my master and model, I ask indulgence
for their unfinished style, and for the necessarily
copious use of the first person singular. I have
jotted down from time to time these personal re-
miniscences of various kinds of sport as typical,
not of extraordinary successes, but of fairly normal
experiences ; and as they were generally written
down while the facts were fresh in my memory,
they may, I trust, be relied upon as accurate.
Perhaps they may awake pleasant recollections in
the minds of some who have enjoyed the same
healthy and restful relaxation in the great play-
ground of the British race.

It is difficult for those who receive the annual
influx of agents' circulars offering every descrip-
tion of Highland sport and accommodation, to
realise the changes that have come over the High-
lands during the century now drawing to its close.
If Walter Scott, the pioneer of picturesque Scot-
land, were recalled to life, he would hardly recog-
nise more than the external natural landmarks of
many of the scenes which he described so well.
The open hospitality which, in his time, made
every casual visitor to the village inn or manse free
to range hill or river-side after stag, muirfowl, or
salmon, of course became impracticable when im-
proved means of communication sent a vast invad-

POLTALLOCH 3

ing army annually northward. But the wholesale
system of letting sporting rights is of comparatively
recent introduction, and great changes have come
about even within my own experience of little
more than a generation. The moor where, in
1872, four guns, of whom I was one, killed over
1500 brace of grouse between the 12th and 24th
of August in ten " lawful days," was then let with
a most commodious lodge and a nice stretch of
fishing for £600 a year. Mr. Aflalo, in his work
on the cost of sport, still adheres to the rough
estimate of £1 for each brace of grouse as the
probable cost of sporting rights, including lodge
accommodation ; but although I hesitate to differ
from so high an authority, I should prefer to fix
the figure at something much nearer a pound a
bird, and good fishing rents have certainly more
than doubled in amount in the last twenty years.
It is, however, only fair to proprietors to admit
that the requirements of tenants in respect of
house accommodation, furniture, and sanitary
arrangements have greatly increased, and that
a very large proportion of the apparent increase
of rent represents interest on outlay necessitated
by such demands. Formerly the annual visit
to the Highlands was looked upon as a sort of
picnic or campaign, of which "roughing it" was
one of the pleasures ; and visitors cheerfully sub-
mitted to be doubled up in attics and garrets at
which the very servants would turn up their noses

4 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

in these more effeminate days. Rats swarmed
about the basements of many of the old ram-
shackle buildings, and did not scruple to penetrate
on occasions into the sitting-rooms and bedrooms.
I have a vivid recollection of one particular night
in Ross-shire, when a great rat got accidentally
shut up in my bedroom, and kept running round
and round, passing on each occasion over my face
as I lay in bed. Half-awake and half-asleep after
a hard day on the hill, I was too lazy to get up,
but felt a grim satisfaction when a splash and a
scraping announced that my tormentor had fallen
into my hip-bath. I had, however, hardly got to
sleep again before my enemy made his escape and
resumed his rounds, dragging his now " moist, un-
pleasant body " over my face as before. Whether
he left off or I ceased to heed him and fell asleep,
I cannot say, but in the early morning I saw him
endeavouring to hide on the top shelf of a cup-
board where a lot of chintz, pin-cushions, and
miscellaneous rubbish, had been put away by the
former occupants. I jumped up and locked the
cupboard door, and flattered myself that I had
secured my revenge for the morning, when I
summoned my brother to assist in the execution
of the intruder. Armed with poker and stick,
we cautiously opened the door of the hiding-place,
but had hardly commenced the search when the
rat jumped on to my shoulder and down on to the
floor, and after a brief chase and a few ineffectual

POLTALLOCH 5

blows vanished up the chimney. I thought we
had seen the last of him, but later in the day he
emerged, damp and sooty, from the fireplace of
another room where the housemaid was cleaning
up ; and a footman, attracted by her screams, came
to the rescue and made an end of him.

Deer forests have not appreciated in value to
the same extent as grouse-moors and salmon-rivers.
There are various reasons for this difference, among
which may be noted the shortness of the stalking
season and the heavy expenses connected with the
sport ; but I think the fact is principally attribu-
table to the hospitable instincts of would-be ten-
ants of sporting rights. Many of these take places
mainly with the view of entertaining their friends ;
and a grouse-moor, especially one suited for driv-
ing, is more likely to give the greatest happiness
for the greatest number, than a forest where many
thousands of acres are necessary to provide sport
for two rifles a day. However, any sort of barren
moorland is now a gold-mine to many a needy
laird, and the same caution should be observed
in the investigation of the alluring advertisements
of agencies as in testing the bona fides and accu-
racy of prospectus-mongers and promoters. Caveat
emptor is the rule, and the description of the
adventures of Mr. Brixey and Mr. Fribbles in the
" Tommiebeg shootings " is hardly an exaggeration
of the deceits and allurements occasionally prac-
tised upon the tyro by a low class of agents, while
even the most scrupulous must of necessity rely

6 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

largely on hearsay information. The best advice
an old hand can give to those who intend to take
a moor is, that they should put themselves, if pos-
sible, in direct communication with some former
tenant before making an offer ; and never conclude
a bargain without personal inspection.

My first acquaintance with Scotland was made
in the year 1867, when my lucky star took me to
Poltalloch, the beautiful property of the Mal-
colms, just opposite the Crinan Canal. From
that date until the present year I have spent
every autumn in Scotland, and most of them at
the sportsman's paradise where I paid my first
visit to the North, and, as nearly all the sub-
sequent sketches describe incidents which took
place there, I must briefly describe its geographi-
cal situation and characteristics.

Poltalloch comprises upwards of 100,000 acres
of moorland and plantations, interspersed with
arable and pasture land in the straths and glens.
It extends southward along the Sound of Jura
to the mouth of Loch Sween in Cantyre, and is
bounded on the west by Loch Crinan and Loch
Craignish, extending northward and eastward
along the shores of Loch Awe. Questions of
political economy are foreign to my subject, but
it is permissible to allude to the magnificent
roads which owe their existence to three genera-
tions of owners of this great estate, and to the
extensive draining operations which have created
the greater part of the arable and pasture land

POLTALLOCH 7

in the glens. Those who inveigh against "un-
earned increment" should recollect, that there is
another side of the question : and I have often
heard the late laird announce his readiness to
hand over his Scotch property to any one who
would repay the capital expended on permanent
improvements without any interest whatever. Of
course, he would have done nothing of the kind ;
and I can imagine his face if any one had closed
with his offer ; but I have little doubt that, from
a purely financial point of view, the bargain would
have been an excellent one for the seller. His
father, who drained the Crinan moss, kept elabo-
rate accounts of the expense of the operation, and
only destroyed them in a fit of temper when he
found that he had spent more money on his
hobby than would have purchased the fee-simple
of an equal acreage of the best land in Lincoln-
shire in its prosperous days ; but, although he
destroyed the records of his expenditure, he con-
tinued his operations to the bitter end.

A naturalist and sportsman may be permitted
to regret the utilitarian proceeding which turned
the greater part of an ideal snipe bog into in-
different farms. Especially do I owe a grudge to
the deep drains through which the rain hurries
to the river, instead of soaking gradually through
the spongy peat moss. The little salmon river
rises and falls in consequence with indecent pre-
cipitation ; and it has often been my lot to be

8 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

flooded out on one day, and after a fine night to
find the upper pools too low for sport on the
following morning. It is owing to the sheep
drains that all the Scotch rivers not connected
with any large lake now rise and fall too rapidly ;
but the little Add has a few tidal pools where
there is always some chance of a grilse, or a few
sea-trout ; and it is not often that there is a
very prolonged drought in the Western Highlands.
I know no species of Highland game, except
ptarmigan and capercailzie, which cannot be
found within the bounds of the property, although
red deer have not penetrated beyond the woods
on the shores of Loch Awe. More than a score
of lochs provide good trout fishing in the spring
and summer, and there is capital sea fishing along
the coast, while the marine zoologist finds incom-
parable dredging ground in the deep and sheltered
waters of Loch Craignish, and other beautiful bays
and creeks. Opposite the mouth of Loch Crinan
lies a long row of rocky islands round which
great sport can be had with lythe and saithe at
the turn of the tide. Beautiful plumose anemones
may be seen here in the clear water, and off one
of these islands named Rua is a little natural
harbour famous in the early part of the century
as the resort of smugglers, who used to run their
luggers in behind a low rock, and after taking
down their masts, remain perfectly concealed until
the coast was clear, when their contraband cargo

POLTALLOCH 9

could be safely unloaded. Smuggling was very
common all along the coast in those days of high
duties and remunerative prices, and I am afraid
the sympathies of the entire neighbourhood from
the laird to the crofter were with the " free-
traders," and against the constituted authorities.
I have often heard the old laird repeat a conversa-
tion which took place between his grandfather and
the factor. " You will find a hogshead of claret in
the cellar," said the latter. " Dear me," replied Pol-
talloch, " how could it have got there ! " " Came on
shore in a gale of wind," was the reply ; and it
was thought as well to ask no further questions.

One species of wild animal, the wild cat, may
be taken to have disappeared from the district
within living memory. I never saw or heard of
one on the estate while I was a resident ; but two
were killed there not very long before. The last
one, a very fine specimen, fell to the gun of the
present Lord Malcolm when shooting woodcock
in Daltote wood in Cantyre, a plantation of fir
trees then not much higher than the knee. The
little terriers routing about in the thick cover
found something unusual, and the particular one
who took credit for the discovery could hardly be
prevailed upon to leave the bearer of the body of
his quarry after it had been deposited in the game-
bag, but followed him about as much as to say,
" That is my cat." The bag that day was a varied
one, as a jack snipe, a woodcock, a roebuck, and

10 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

a wild cat fell to four successive shots. Mr.
Egremont Lascelles, while watching for deer near
the woods by Loch Craignish, had a long shot
with the rifle at another, as it crossed the steep
brae at the back of Ormaig farm. It was trapped
very shortly afterwards, and proved to be a true
wild cat. Fifty years ago, according to Brodie,
the old keeper, there were a good many upon the
estate, and he told me that he had taken as large
a number as six in the course of one visit to his
traps between Kilmartin and the head of Loch
Awe. This interesting creature which, according
to Lydekker, has been an inhabitant of Great
Britain since the age of the mammoth, would be
by this time as extinct as that quadruped but for
the deer forests, in the remote recesses of which it
still finds a sanctuary. I do not, however, agree
with Mr. Lydekker in ascribing its extermination
from many of its former haunts to the increased
use of fire-arms. Nocturnal in its habits, it cannot
often afford a mark for the gun of a sportsman
or keeper ; but it is very easily trapped, and the
enhanced value of moors in the Highlands has
naturally led to the destruction of so undesirable
a neighbour for game and black-game.

A curious adventure with one of these crea-
tures is described by Mr. Alfred Lubbock in his
" Memories of Eton and Etonians." He killed
this " fine genuine wild stump-tailed cat, Felix
catus" in 1862, in the forest of Wyvis, near

POLTALLOCH 11

Inverness. He was coming down the river to
fish on a very stormy and windy day, when he
saw something running along the bank, every
now and then stopping and looking as if it wanted
to get across the river, but was afraid to jump in
and tackle the stream. He threw down his rod
and ran after it, picking up two or three stones
as he went. Owing to the wind, and the noise
of it and of the stream combined, the animal did
not seem to hear him until he got within about
fifteen yards of it, when it stopped and looked
round at him, and he saw that it was a cat. In
an instant he "let go one of the stones at it,
catching it on the head, and it rolled over." Cer-
tainly the occurrence was a most remarkable one ;
but to those who remember the narrator's accu-
racy of aim and power of throwing, the fact of his
getting a chance at a wild cat will seem more
strange than his success in taking advantage of it.
The beautiful little pine marten still makes an
occasional appearance in Argyleshire. Two at
least have been trapped upon the Poltalloch
estate during the last ten years. One was caught
there about 1890, and the keeper then told me
that the last he had trapped before was caught
" the day the new church was opened," which
fixes the date as 1853. Another, a bitch that had
never had cubs, was caught in Oib Graem, in the
rabbit warren, in 1895. Colonel Malcolm of
Achnamara, a keen naturalist, greatly regretted

12 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

that his visitor had met with so inhospitable a
reception ; but these agile creatures are such great
travellers that it would be impossible to preserve
them effectually on any single estate, however
large. It must, I fear, be admitted to be mis-
chievous and ferocious ; St. John describes it as
one of the most destructive of its tribe, and says
that the shepherds accuse it of destroying great
numbers of sheep. " His method of attack is
said to be by seizing the unfortunate sheep by
the nose, which he eats away until the animal is
destroyed on the spot, and dies a lingering death."
As he also adds that they kill numbers of lambs ;
and, when they take to poultry killing, enter the
hen-house fearlessly, committing immense havoc,
in fact, seldom leaving a single fowl alive, it
would not be easy to justify their preservation, or
to regret that they have ceased to be as abundant
as when he used frequently to shoot them with
the rifle on the tall pine trees in Sutherlandshire.
They destroy game of all kinds, and even squirrels,
and their character altogether is so bad, that one
who deprecates the absolute extinction of any of
our indigenous fauna will best serve his purpose
by dropping the subject.

If some animals are disappearing others are
taking their place. It is difficult for one who has
often seen the rabbits on a hill-side in the evening
swarming like mites in an old Cheshire cheese, to
realise that these destructive little creatures were

POLTALLOCH 13

for the first time artificially introduced into Argyle-
shire by Mr. Askew at Minard Castle in 1845,
and that the comments of the neighbours upon
the attempt was that it would never do, that the
climate was too wet, and that it was no use to
attempt to acclimatise a creature so obviously un-
suited by nature for the locality. Would that the
prophecy had been correct ! The rabbits have
become almost as great a pest as they are in Aus-
tralia, and defy the elements everywhere, except
along the river banks, where great numbers are
drowned by unusually heavy floods, and even there
they speedily recruit their numbers, and sport
about as merrily and carelessly as others did
before the flood in the days of Noe. In Scotland,
as elsewhere, they are a source of strife between
gamekeepers and tenants ; but paradoxically
enough it would seem that the former are the
advocates of their destruction and the latter of
their preservation. Many of the farmers pay a
large proportion of their rent out of the profits
made from the sale of this spontaneously developed
crop, and resent their being trapped or snared by
the laird's retainers, while they themselves neglect
to keep them down during the early summer
months, when they are valueless and unsaleable.
On a grouse moor they can only be regarded as
an unmitigated nuisance ; as it is hardly possible
to prevent any but the steadiest dogs from point-
ing them, while few are shot from the double fear

14 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIKE

of over-burdening the gillies and spoiling the dogs.
Even in covert shooting in the North they give
no sport at all commensurate with their numbers,
and altogether I thoroughly sympathise with old
Brodie, the keeper, who used to tell me that he
remembered their first appearance, and wished he
had the last pair of them by the neck.

It is difficult to give even an approximate esti-
mate of the number killed annually, but the
present head-keeper reports that he and his staff,
during the six winter months, October to March,
kill 6000 couple on an average. About 200
couple a week are killed about the home farm
and woods, and in spite of all this rabbits are
increasing. Add to this record the number killed
by the farmer, and during the summer months,
and it makes the 26,000 which I seem to re-
member as the number recorded during one year
in the '70's, by no means an extravagant estimate.
The best sport they give, in my opinion, is as a
mark for a pea rifle. It is easy to get rid of a
whole pocketful of cartridges during an after-
noon's stroll over Benan, and each little separate
gully and valley provides one, and often several,
chances as you creep over the sky-line. If the
wind is strong the slight report of a '295 cartridge
is hardly heard at all, and I have killed as many
as eight in one place before a miss sent one off
running and gave the alarm to his companions.
Only the head or shoulder should be aimed at, as

POLTALLOCH 15

it is distressing to see a badly-hit creature
struggle away to die a lingering death in some
cairn or hole. One drawback is the carriage of
the bag. A keeper or gillie dangling at one's heels
is destructive to sport of this kind ; yet it is quite
easy soon to kill more than most sportsmen would
care to carry with them. The best plan is to have
an attendant to keep you in sight with instruc-
tions to remain at least 200 yards behind, and
only follow to gather up the game when you have
disappeared over the sky-line.

The fox is, of course, regarded as pure vermin,
and even a greater enemy to the farmer than to the
game preserver. The number killed at Poltalloch
during the three years 1894, 1895, and 1896 were
84, 63, and 75 respectively. 9, 7, and 8 otters,
and 3, 4, and 4 badgers were also trapped in the
same years. I do not think much trouble is
taken to catch these last, and fancy they are still
fairly numerous, although their nocturnal habits
render them rarely visible to the ordinary visitor
to the Highlands. I never myself saw one in a
wild state ; but this proves nothing, as I only saw
foxes on the hills or in the woods on three or
four occasions during my autumn rambles on the
West Coast, although they are so numerous as to
be a nuisance.

I have never had the good fortune to see the
golden eagle on the Poltalloch estate, although I
have frequently watched its splendid flight in and

16 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

near the deer forests farther north. I do not
suppose it nests anywhere nearer than the island
of Jura, where that excellent sportsman and natu-
ralist, Mr. Henry Evans, forbids their destruction.
A pair of ospreys used to build on the old ruined
castle of Innischonnell, on Loch Awe, but they
were ruthlessly murdered by a tourist who climbed
up the old ivied wall, and shot the hen on the
nest, and the cock as it returned from a fishing
expedition. I have often watched these beautiful
birds by another northern loch which shall be
nameless, and it is a rare treat to see them soar-
ing over the blue water to their home in the
inaccessible precipice where they nest. They do
little or no harm, as the fish they take do not
materially affect the supply as compared with
other destructive agencies, and they certainly
ought to be protected legally by the local autho-
rities, and also by the landowners, who should
instruct their keepers and watchers to prevent
the depredations of marauding egg and skin
collectors. Four years ago, when it was reported
that a fine specimen of a sea eagle had been
taken at Sonachan with a trap hanging from one
of its talons, my brother-in-law, Lord Malcolm of
Poltalloch, telegraphed to buy it, fondly hoping
that it was really an osprey which had returned
to its old haunt. It proved, however, to be a
genuine sea eagle, with a fine appetite for rabbits,
which had to be supplied in large quantities

J

POLTALLOCH 17

during its period of convalescence. The bruised
talon was treated successfully by the keeper, and
when the patient had quite recovered he was
ordered to let him go. " What ! " said the keeper,
"are you not going to keep him in a cage?"
" Certainly not," said Poltalloch, " let him go at
once." Accordingly he was taken to Benan, and
sailed majestically out with the west wind which
was blowing strong, but he must have turned
south afterwards, for he spent some time on the
Achindarroch estate by the Crinan Canal, where
he was unmolested and protected. I can give no
account of his movements after he deserted those
quarters, but he probably escaped with his life, as
I should almost certainly have heard of it had he
been shot or trapped.

The eagle owl has been more than once
accidentally trapped on the estate, where no owls
are intentionally interfered with, and many of the
smaller varieties are fairly common. I remember
one instance at least of a visit from the Great
Snowy Owl. The keeper coming back from
Macaskan, an island in Loch Craignish, where
he had been after an outlying deer, described to
me a large pure white owl which he saw rise from
a rock a short distance off the shore, and wing its
noiseless flight northwards, pursued and mobbed
by terns and gulls. No other bird the least
answers to the description of its size, colour, and
flight given to me by a fairly accurate observer.

B

18 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

Most descriptions of hawks and buzzards are
fairly numerous, and none of them except the
sparrow-hawk are systematically destroyed. I
have watched many an interesting chase of the
peregrine after ducks, plovers, curlews, and terns,
and of the merlin after his smaller quarry. All
the Corvidse are tolerably common on the main-
land, with the exception of the chough, and I
have had opportunities of studying the glossy
plumage and red beak and legs of that interesting
survival on some of the Hebridean Islands, where
he was once far commoner than the mischievous
and now ubiquitous jackdaw. Sea birds of all
kinds abound, and I note with pleasure the
increase of the eider-duck, which is now quite
a familiar object in most of the sea lochs on the
west coast. The young birds when about three-
quarter grown are peculiarly helpless ; so much
so, that if, as occasionally happens, they are left
high and dry on shore by the ebb, they wait for
the tide to rise again instead of waddling down
over the sand. My son, the first time he saw one
of these birds stranded in this fashion, knocked it
on the head, under the impression that he was
putting a wounded bird out of its misery ; but
subsequent experience has taught us that it is
quite a common occurrence, and that it is no
physical injury, but mere awkwardness and
laziness, which prevents them from waddling over
the sand to their native element. Once in the

POLTALLOCH 19

water laziness and awkwardness are both at an
end, and the youngest birds can dive and swim
strongly and gracefully even where a wild sea is
breaking over sunken rocks.

I have frequently had opportunities of watch-
ing a rarer visitor, the beautiful little grey
phalarope, which in shape and size greatly re-
sembles a sandpiper, but on the water sits and
swims like a duck, with its semi-webbed feet.
This pretty bird is peculiarly fearless of man-
kind ; and also deluded me on my first intro-
duction into the idea that it was wounded. I
was fishing in the Add, and saw my little friend
swimming about in some shallow water left by
the flood in a green meadow adjoining. I waded
after it, and tried to catch it : several times
nearly touching it with the landing-net before
it fluttered away a few yards. At last, however,
when it had had enough of the game, it gave
perfect proof of its being quite uninjured by
flying clean out of sight over the high hill of
Dunadd and disappearing. Since then I have
often got quite close to them and watched them
for a long time, and I am glad to say I have
never abused their confidence by taking their
lives.

One specimen of a very rare bird, the brown
or red-breasted snipe (Macroramphus griseus),
was shot by my nephew, Harold Malcolm, in
1891. This bird is recorded twice over in

20 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

Harvie Brown's " Fauna of Argyll and the Inner
Hebrides," as the second and third specimen
procured in Scotland. I note for the benefit of
that very accurate observer, in case he should
publish another edition of his book, that the
bird " shot near Crinan, and exhibited by Dr.
Edward Hamilton at a meeting of the Zoological
Society/' was the same bird " shot at Poltalloch
by a son of Colonel Malcolm, on the 2nd of
September 1891."

Two instances of curious " freaks " must con-
clude this prefatory chapter. A pure white
woodcock was shot at Poltalloch, but the keeper
who shot it and had it stuffed was allowed
to take it away. I have always regretted that
so rare and beautiful a specimen of albinism did
not find its proper place in the interesting case
in the hall of the Natural History Museum. The
other was a rook, with the upper mandible of
its beak prolonged to a length of some three
inches, and curved and shaped like that of a
curlew. The curious may see this singular mal-
formation in the index case to the left of the
central gallery, in company with the head of an
equally remarkable pheasant presented by Lord
Walsingham. It would have seemed almost im-
possible for any rook to feed with such a
protuberance, but the bird had been observed
for nearly three years, and was in quite good
condition when killed.

POLTALLOCH 21

The various sketches which follow were written
at different times, many years apart, and describe
typical days at different Highland sports on the
West Coast. I leave them to speak for them-
selves, vouching for the accuracy of every fact
recorded as having come under my personal
observation.

CHAPTER II
FALLOW-DEER AT HOME

It is a fine warm morning in the early part of
September, and, after a pleasant walk across the
hill, I have just come in sight of the sea, a narrow
part of Loch Craignish lying immediately below
me, at a distance of not more than four or five
hundred yards. A large fir plantation, sloping
down to the shore, clothes the hillside below me ;
there is a crisp, fresh feeling in the air, and the
whole view is clear as only an Argyleshire land-
scape can be. These cliffs of Mull to the west,
which look so distinct as they come down sheer
to the blue water, are more than twenty miles
distant ; and Scarba, upon which one would
expect to be able to "spy" the red deer with a
good glass, is eight at least, as the crow flies.
Below, the loch itself is studded with innumer-
able islands, varying in size from the small rocks
which are barely visible at high tide, to Righ
and Macaskan, which, between them, must attain
a length of two miles. To the south-west, across
the dreaded whirlpool of " Corrievreken," 1 a faint

1 I adopt Scott's spelling of the name. It is as well to say that
my spelling of Gaelic names is in all cases phonetic. The true

FALLOW-DEER AT HOME 23

outline of land is distinctly visible, and nearly
due south the double peak of Jura stands out
distinct and clear in the distance.

But what am I doing on the hillside ? for
I have not come here simply like Dr. Syntax,
" in search of the picturesque." My express rifle
is beside me, and I have also a coat, for I know
that I shall probably spend the best part of the
day on the hillside, and it is not impossible that
there may be some showers before long, notwith-
standing the almost supernatural brilliancy of
sea and sky. However, I am prepared for any
fate. I have my lunch, I have my flask, I have
my coat, and I have my rifle and stalking-glass ;
and long experience has convinced me that I am
in just the place to spend a happy day. I know
that there are wild fallow-deer either in the large
fir plantation below me, the hazel copses and
bracken beds which clothe the brae-faces around
me, or the natural cover on the face of Benan to
the south ; and I am sure that the hounds will
find some of them, and hunt them round in my
direction before the day is over. Whether I
shall see anything more than does and fawns
and small bucks not " worth a shot," or whether,
if I do see a " muckle beast," he will come within

spelling contains a liberal allowance of b's and ch's not found in the
ordinary guide-books or atlases, which take a line of their own, e.g.
Black's Guide spells the above word " Corrivrekin." The Times
Atlas reads " Corry vrekan."

24 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

shot of me ; or, again, whether I shall hit him
if he does, are all questions of a more doubtful
character. But I hope for the best, and, at any
rate, I am determined to enjoy myself whatever
happens. I have plenty of time before me, for
the keepers have gone round to place the other
rifles, and will then begin to hunt at the end of
the wood more than a mile off, and I know that
I can look about me without the least danger
of anything passing me unperceived. Practice
has sharpened my eyes and ears, and, even if
a beast slips away without the hounds giving
tongue, I shall be pretty sure to hear a stick
snap, or the bracken rustle, and to see him before
he is within shot of me.

I take out my glass and adjust it to focus, and
first I turn it upon a small group of rocks close
to the shore of the island opposite. Are there
any seals on them? Ten years ago I counted
twenty at a time basking and enjoying themselves
there on such a day as this at low tide. Three —
no, four, weird-looking cormorants, with their wings
outstretched. No wonder Milton depicted Satan
on the tree of knowledge in that form : it can
hardly be called disguise. Then some herons, and,
— yes, three long shapes, which an unpractised eye
would take for rocks protruding above the tangle,
but which I should know for seals, even without
the occasional lazy motion of a tail or flapper, by
which, I suppose, they are trying to get into a

FALLOW-DEER AT HOME 25

more comfortable position, just as Watts's sluggard
" turns his sides and his shoulders and his heavy
head" for the same purpose. Poor, pretty, per-
secuted beasts, I know you are mischievous, for I
have seen you with salmon in your mouths, and
poaching at the stake-nets ; but an angler should
not be too hard on you for that last fault, con-
sidering the way you tear them. How is it that,
although I am always vowing that I never will
shoot at you again,1 I never can resist if I get an
opportunity. It is not for your blubber, for I
leave that to the boatmen ; and it is not for your
skin, for I have two, and should not know what
to do with any more. I hope it is because of the
well-founded confidence I feel in the probability
of your escape, unless I get a chance at you on
the rocks, stalking you from that very island oppo-
site by creeping down the burn. It is surprising
to think how many seals I have seen shot at in
the water by good rifle-shots, and how few I have
seen one penny the worse.

However, I am not after seals now, and I can
watch those at my leisure with no bloodthirsty
designs, and I look up and down the loch to see
whether there are any more dog-like heads in
view ; for there is scarcely a ripple anywhere, as
what wind there is, is from the west. I turn my
glass on different distant objects in the water,
to disclose in succession a flock of mergansers

1 I never shoot at seals now. This was written a long time ago.

26 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

diving and swimming merrily along, many gulls
of various species, some quaint little guillemots,
some more cormorants fishing, and, lastly, an
eider-duck with two young ones. I see the boat,
too, which has come round from Duntroon ; but
the boatmen cannot have understood the message
sent them in the morning, as they have gone into
the landing-place instead of lying out half-way
across, in case the deer take the water.

Some time has now elapsed since the keepers
and hounds passed through the field below the
plantation on the way to their starting-point, and
I expect I shall soon hear the hounds. The pack
is at rather a low ebb just now ; but although
they would be looked askance at in the Quorn
Country, no doubt they will manage to " put some
of them out of that," as the old keeper says.
There are three foxhounds and three harriers, a
small Poltalloch terrier, who will hunt anything,
from a red-deer to a rat, and who is very useful
in the high bracken beds, and a brown retriever.
The gillies, also, will walk through the wood, and
some of the best hounds will be kept coupled
until a right beast is found.

There is something crossing the clear place in
the wood where so many trees were blown down
by the Tay Bridge gale : one, two, three, four —
all does and fawns. I hope the hounds have not
got upon them, for I hear the cry beginning, and
they are certainly hunting something ; no, it is all

FALLOW-DEER AT HOME 27

right, for I hear Woodman and Rachel on this
side of where those deer passed, and they are
coming this way. I take up my rifle and un-
bolt the hammer, and my heart beats a trifle
quicker, for if the deer does take this line it will
not be many minutes before he is here. There
he is by the dyke, about 400 yards off, standing
and thinking which way he will go next. The
dyke is a rough stone wall, at least five feet in
height ; but if he means to make across the hill
to Large, or to skirt the outside of the wood for
the face of Benan, I shall be sure to get a shot
at him. For fully a minute he stands hesitating ;
and I can see by his long brow antlers, and
spreading, but not widely palmated horns, that he
is a rare old stager, far superior in weight to the
graceful creatures which ornament our English
parks. Will he come ? Alas ! it is not to be ;
a turn and a bound, and he is off through the
brackens and out of my sight ; and I have the
mortification of first seeing four of the hounds
upon his track, and then hearing them pass below
at a distance at which I might almost have shot
the deer if it had been possible to see him in the
thick cover.

My chance is gone for the present, but there
is one rifle at the end between the two woods, and
another in the "park" (Anglice, field) below to
the south, and one or other of them will surely
get a shot. The first is out of my sight ; but I

28 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

know where the second should be, and mechani-
cally I turn my glass upon the spot. Oh, shame !
is that the way a soldier (and a colonel to boot)
watches his pass ? He is lying at full length in
the heather, he has taken off his Norfolk jacket,
and his white shirt shines conspicuous to the
naked eye — worse, he has covered his head with a
towel he brought with a view to bathing, and he
is waving a bunch of brackens, and doubtless
objurgating the flies and midges, while his rifle
lies unheeded beside him. Well, no doubt, the
insects are pretty bad down there out of the wind,
but surely he will hear the hounds coming towards
him, and rouse himself to a sense of his position.
If not, I am well assured that no self-respecting
deer will come within a quarter of a mile of such
a conspicuous object. As I expected, the deer
has turned, for I hear the cry of the hounds
coming nearer to me, although still a long way
off.

Is that a seal just off the small promontory a
little this side of the landing-place ? No, it is
the deer, and he is making straight for the island
opposite, looking neither to the right hand nor
to the left. He swims very deep in the water,
nothing but his head showing, with his horns
well thrown back so as almost to touch his back,
bringing his grand brow antlers prominently for-
ward. Now, had the boatmen understood orders,
he would have been ours, but in spite of my

FALLOW-DEER AT HOME 29

shouts and waving handkerchief, he is three parts
of the way across before the boat is after him ;
the men pulling with a will to make up for lost
time and neglected opportunities. He hears the
splash of the oars and quickens his pace ; and it
is well for him that he does so, for the bow of
the boat is actually touching his back before he
reaches the shore. For a moment he stands and
shakes himself, and then, trotting leisurely up the
hill, is lost to sight in a bank of hazel. No doubt
he thinks himself safe, but he is mistaken. All
depends upon circumstances. If I can find the
men, and they can catch some of the hounds,
while there is time to go across after him, we may
have him yet; for the island, although long, is
narrow, and there is not much wood in it. He
will, no doubt, be lying close, and, when found,
will readily take to the water again to return to
his home ; but this time, at least, he will have no
chance of escape in that quarter, for the boatmen
will be on the alert and watching for him.

The baffled hounds, after fruitlessly baying for
a minute or two on the shore, have straggled
back into the cover. I despatch my lunch, and
watch the herons lazily flying over the island
opposite,- counting over thirty, some of which, no
doubt, are young ones of this year, bred upon the
spot. Presently twelve black objects are seen
crossing the field below in line, which I can recog-
nise with the naked eye for a flock of the wild

30 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

American turkeys which have been introduced
into the locality and thriven fairly well. Fine
handsome fellows they are, with their glossy
metallic plumage, and cinnamon wings and tail,
but disappointing from a sporting point of view.
It is almost impossible to persuade them to fly;
but when they do, they look grand, swooping
over your head from some woody bank above you,
with hardly a motion of their great wings. It is,
however, rather amusing sometimes to stalk them
and shoot them, with a pea rifle, through the
head or neck ; to hit them anywhere else would
be too easy for sport, besides spoiling the meat.
Once fairly alarmed they seem to have discovered
the secret of perpetual motion, and it is no easy
matter to get a second tolerably easy shot. Their
principal merits are that they are excellent birds
for the table, and a great addition to the land-
scape.

This time I do not watch them for long, for I
can study them at leisure at home from the window
of my room. Never were there birds of more
regular habits. The city clerk watching for his
daily omnibus does not appear on the same place
at the same time with more certainty. Unless
something startling has happened to alarm them,
you might safely set your watch by their move-
ments, as they stroll along in line, morning and
evening, picking the grass seeds as they go, with
a rapid motion of head and neck which I have

FALLOW-DEER AT HOME 31

timed to take place a little more than a hundred
times a minute. Next, a red object appears in
the wood below me, and I seize my rifle as I
recognise a roe well within shot. It raises its
head to listen, and I cover it with the sight, but
do not pull the trigger, for the motion has shown
me that it has no horns ; and, except in some
very young plantation where the trees are being
destroyed, I never shoot a doe.

The hounds are hunting again in wood below
me, and a shout or two shows that the beaters
are approaching, when I see another deer in
the water just where the first one crossed.
This time the boat is on the lookout, and from
my watch-tower I see him caught and bound
before he has got half-way across. He is, how-
ever, a reluctant and recalcitrant captive ; for
when he has been hauled in on one side of the
boat, he jumps out once upon the other before
he is fairly secured. He looks a pretty good
beast, lighter in colour than the other, but cer-
tainly not so large. To-day it seems that the
boatmen are to have all the sport, which sur-
prises me, as the deer have not been shot at or
particularly hard pressed by the hounds. I sup-
pose it is the fine day and the unrippled sea
which makes them so ready for a bath. How-
ever, it is a good opportunity to signal to the
boatmen ; the gillies are near, and the hounds
will be easily caught, and we can see what we

32 AUTUMNS IN AEGYLESHIRE

can do with the big beast on the island before
we determine the fate of our unfortunate captive.
One man is sent round to fetch the other rifles
and bring them down to the shore, while I and
the keeper make for the same point through the
wood, and before we reach the boat we have
caught Prudence and Woodman, who will be
quite enough to find and start the buck that
got away from us this morning. As we announce
our intention of sailing or rowing home, which
may make us rather late, one of the party prefers
to walk back across the hill ; so we start off with
six men in all — two keepers, the boatmen, and
ourselves, with two hounds and the brown re-
triever, whose presence is not at all relished by
the fallow-buck which lies at the bottom of the
boat, with his legs tied together and his horns
tied to the seat in a workman-like manner. We
examine him, and pronounce him to be five years
old and very fat ; the palm of the horn is widen-
ing, but the brow antlers are still short, and, as
he has two years of growth before him, I make
up my mind that whatever may happen to his
companion, when the council is held to deter-
mine his fate, my voice shall be given in favour
of mercy.

A very few minutes bring us to the island, and
we take up our positions. I mount guard on a
knoll near the landing-place, from which I can
see the whole breadth of the island except the

FALLOW-DEER AT HOME 33

wooded thinks, which slope down to the shore on
either side, while my companion takes his place
farther to the south, where he is almost certain
to get a shot, if, as is probable, the buck has not
left the cover which was his point in the morning.
A few old black-cocks, glossy enough, although
not in the full perfection of their winter plumage,
rise and fly lazily across to the mainland on either
side, and there is a fresh breadth of sea to explore
with the glass, more ruffled, because more ex-
posed to the now stiffening breeze. The main-
land on the west is some distance off; and the
nearest island on the same side, a rocky precipice
with hardly grazing enough upon it for a goat,
must be nearly a mile away. However, I have
not long to spend in contemplation, for, before
the hounds have begun to give tongue, I recognise
something brushing a path through the long
brackens below me, and a smart run brings me
within shot of the beast, galloping away as hard
as he can about 150 yards off, end on towards
me. Another moment and he will be out of
sight. Shall I shoot? At least I determine not
to repeat a feat accomplished some years before,
when I planted an expanding ball well between
the haunches of a deer in a similar position with
deadly effect, actually cutting off its tail, which
my companions proposed to present to me as a
testimonial, with a suitable inscription. Head or
nothing, here goes ! and the ball whistles between

c

34 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

his horns just before he passes out of sight below
the brae. My companion has seen him, and fired
a fruitless and melancholy shot at him at a long
range ; but never mind, he will have to come
back again, and, once I make out his intentions,
I know the island sufficiently well to cut him off
whatever point he makes for. Vain hope ! to my
great surprise I see him in the water again on the
west side of the island. I join my companion
and we watch him with our glasses. Surely an
unwounded beast would not have taken the water
at a wholly unknown point without a notion
where to make for. It does not, however, take
long to convince us, from the pace he is swim-
ming, that he is quite unhurt. It is too late to
get the boat, although he must be in the water
a long time. As the biggest fish are those that
get off the hook, so the length of those brow
antlers and the span of those horns gradually in-
crease as we watch him ploughing his way across
the bay. Once or twice we think, or try to think,
that he means to turn, in which case he is ours ;
but the hope is vain, and at last we see him land
and trot up the island in the distance, unscathed
and safe ; for, even if there were time, we have no
right to pursue him there. Slowly we collect our
forces, and join in lamentations over the deer
departed — not alas ! the " dear deceased," to
quote Hood's wonderful pun from the " Epping
Hunt." Next we land, and liberate our captive,

FALLOW-DEER AT HOME 35

after marking his ear in order that we may recog-
nise and calculate his growth on some future
occasion, and then up with the sail. Two beats
take us out of Loch Craignish, and as we watch
the setting sun purpling the rocks over Jura, and
lazily discuss the pipe of peace, we think of the
lines so inimitably illustrated by Caldecott : —

" So they hunted and they hollo'd till the setting of the sun,
An' they'd nought to bring away at last, when th' hunting-
day was done.
Then one unto the other said, 'This huntin' doesn't pay,
But we'n powler't up an' down a bit an' had a rattlin' day.

Look ye there ! ' "

It must not be supposed that all our expedi-
tions are as unsuccessful as the one I have just
described. I chose it for description partly be-
cause it is an almost literal and exact account
of what occurred on the last occasion I was out
after the deer, and partly because I thought there
was some spark of originality in describing a
failure. Many deer are doubtless missed upon the
hillside, but few indeed in the smoking-room or in
the pages of sporting chronicles. There was one
occasion, ever to be marked with white, when, as
I occupied the same position, two grand beasts
trotted out of the hazel bank between me and the
dyke, about sixty yards off, before I had been in
my place half-an-hour. I chose the one which
had the finest head, and shot him through the neck,
and, hastily putting a fresh cartridge into my single-

36 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

barrelled Henry, fired a snapshot at the second, with-
out success, as he galloped off. By the time that
I had loaded again he had stopped for a moment
at the dyke, either to wait for his " neighbour " or
to look before he leaped. It was a long distance,
but then he was standing broadside to me, and,
putting up the 200 yards' sight, and taking it full
I fired again. A sudden start, a turn, and he dis-
appeared into the hazel bank behind him. I ran
hurriedly on to the end of it to see where he went,
but I might have spared myself the trouble, for
when the keepers and hounds came up he was
lying dead not twenty yards from where I shot
at him with a ball through his heart. A noble
beast, the largest I had killed or seen killed up to
that date. He weighed one hundred and ninety-
two pounds clean ; his companion a hundred and
sixty-seven. The weight of the deer first killed,
which had the better head, was by no means
unusual or remarkable ; for these wild fallow-deer
have what they like best, a wide range and abun-
dance and variety of food, which makes them on
an average far heavier than their domestic cousins,
and a full-grown buck is seldom less than one
hundred and fifty pounds.1 For the benefit of any
one who may wish to institute a comparison, I
should say that the weights of the deer are given

1 My record of 192 lbs. has been twice beaten, since I killed one
of 202 lbs. in 1891, and another of the great weight of 204 lbs. fell
to Lord Malcolm's rifle in 1897.

FALLOW-DEER AT HOME 37

as they are brought in off the hill, with the head
and the horns still on, but "gralloched" and bled.
Their horns are not nearly so broad and shovel-
like as those of a park buck ; some run to points
almost like a red deer's. I have heard various
suggested explanations of this, but none satisfac-
tory to my mind, so I content myself with merely
stating the fact. To conclude the catalogue of
their qualities, their venison is the finest known.

Fallow-deer are naturally frequenters of woods,
only leaving the cover to feed in the early gloam-
ing, and in the evening just before the twilight,
and, therefore, cannot be stalked in the proper
sense of the word. I have, however, often suc-
ceeded in getting a shot walking quietly through
the covers in the evenings, and keeping a sharp
lookout in the open places. Even when startled
at your approach, the deer generally stand for a
moment, and give an opportunity for a snapshot.
In the smaller woods it is as well, in the first
instance at any rate, to try to start them by simply
sending two or three beaters through, as they do not
travel so far or so fast as when the hounds are after
them. I have never known an unwounded fallow-
deer actually run down by the hounds, although
they might, no doubt, be occasionally caught by a
more numerous and swifter pack. The best sort
of hound for the purpose is one with a good nose
and solid of bone and sinew, and, above all, plenty
of tongue to tell the soporific sportsman of the

38 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

approach of the deer. I remember one distin-
guished literary character (now a judge of the
High Court) who insisted on taking Homer out
with him on one of our expeditions, and, although
he loudly protests to this day that he kept a good
lookout all the time, and that nothing came any-
where near him, he will never persuade the keeper
or myself that the deer did not pass within a
hundred yards of him. Horace is our authority
for the statement that Homer was not above
taking an occasional nap himself; and I can
well believe that, on that fine autumn day, on
the pleasant hillside, he was the cause of sleep
in another.

Although on most occasions the position of
the rifles is changed more than once, there is no
doubt that many sportsmen look upon such a
deer hunt or drive as monotonous and dull, and
only take part in one, quite unnecessarily, out
of good nature. It must be admitted, too, that
on a still, muggy day, in a sheltered place, the
midges can make themselves extremely disagree-
able. It is curious how much more they attack
some people than others, and with what different
effect. For myself, to quote the expressive sen-
tence of an Irish milkmaid, "It is not the bit
they ate of me that I grudge ; it's just the ever-
lasting trampling they kape up." Not a sign of
their attacks remains upon me in the evening,
whereas I have seen the face of one of their

FALLOW-DEER AT HOME 39

victims covered with good-sized bumps which
did not disappear for more than a week.

After all, it is a good deal a question of
temperament whether the sport ought really to
be called monotonous. To me, " custom cannot
stale its infinite variety." I have described a
day in a particular place — certainly, to my eyes,
one of the loveliest spots in Scotland — but there
is no place which has not its objects of interest
for eyes that are open to see them. In one
single August morning I have seen no less than
eight woodcocks flushed, each carrying a young
one curiously huddled up between its beak and
feet ; and, on another occasion, one ran up within
a yard of me, snapping its bill and making a
curious hissing noise when I picked up its half-
grown baby, which, it is needless to say, I had
no intention of hurting. But the commonest
birds and beasts have an interest, as you watch
them, unconscious of your presence. The startled
surprise of the hare, rabbit, or squirrel, which,
after feeding for some time quite close to you,
suddenly discovers that you are really alive, has
its comical element. Then thousands of lovely
mosses, and ferns of all kinds, from the tall
Osmunda to the tiny film fern, more like a moss
(if one may say so without a bull) than some of
the true mosses, disclose themselves unsought
in places where, as yet, they are safe from the
predatory instincts of collectors. The true

40 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

botanist or tourist does little harm ; but a new
race has sprung up, of whom it is difficult to
speak or think with patience, who have discovered
the commercial value of ferns, and are rapidly
destroying what is rare and beautiful. I know
one exquisite Highland loch, of which the most
remarkable and beautiful feature was the Osmunda,
which fringed its banks in veritable bushes. Last
year, an enterprising collector fairly stripped the
accessible portions of the banks, and carried away
three cart-loads of roots ! I do not know if he
could swim, but I should have been very glad to
have given him the opportunity of learning to
do so in his clothes.

The same hounds which hunt the fallow-deer
also serve for following the roe ; and indeed, if
they had the choice, would probably select the
latter amusement (as the scent is stronger or
more attractive). The roe prefer the natural
birch-woods and young plantations to the high
woods and thick bracken, and trust more to their
cunning than their speed to elude pursuit. Their
endless turns and devices, and the fact that they
usually run in a ring, and never go far in front
of the hounds, make a roe hunt very amusing
to watch, particularly as in the open cover on a
hillside one can often see the whole course of
the hunt for an hour together. I have seen an
old buck, with the hounds after it, push a doe
out of its couch in the bracken, and take its

FALLOW-DEER AT HOME 41

place, thus providing a substitute in a manner
which did more credit to its ingenuity than to
its gallantry. The hounds frequently run them
down, wearying them out much as a stoat does
a rabbit, by perseverance rather than speed.

I may conclude with the story of a roe hunt
in another place, for which I cannot vouch my
personal knowledge. Some years ago the roe had
increased to a mischievous extent in a young plan-
tation, and the fiat was issued for a massacre on
a large scale. All who were willing to assist were
invited, and a mixed crowd of farmers, shepherds,
and keepers made their appearance, each with a
gun or rifle over his shoulder, and a flask of whisky
in his pocket. Boys, gillies, hounds, and collies
were employed in starting the game and keeping
it on foot ; and from an early hour a terrific bom-
bardment continued — slugs, buck-shot, and bullets
flying in all directions. The head-keeper, to give
his own account, soon retired into a dry ditch and
prayed, thus providing, as far as he could, for his
bodily safety and spiritual welfare. Happily no
one was killed or even wounded. The next
morning one of the farmers came and asked him,
with an air of mystery, if he had paid his boys.
He replied in the affirmative. " And did they
all come for their money ? " " Yes," he said.
"Then," said the questioner with an air of relief,
" it will be a roe that you will find lying under the
dyke a wee bit west of the withered ash tree."

CHAPTER III
CHASING THE ROE

" I watched a roe," says St. John, in a well-
known passage of his " Wild Sports of the High-
lands," " stripping the leaves off a long bramble
shoot. My rifle was aimed at his heart, and my
finger was on the trigger, but I made some excuse
or other to myself for not killing him, and left
him undisturbed. His beauty saved him." I
am afraid that with most sportsmen on the war-
path the sporting aspect is apt to prevail over
the aesthetic, and they do not often show the same
forbearance as the genial author of the brightest
of sporting records ; but if beauty could prevail
to soften the heart, no animal would be more
likely to reach old age than a roebuck.

What a beautiful thoroughbred -looking crea-
ture he is — a very fairy of the woods ! A roe,
threading his path through birch and bracken,
or standing for a moment in some open glade
with graceful head turned towards the intruder,
looks, what he is, no trespasser, but tenant in fee
by right of birth and prescription as one of the
oldest inhabitants. His big brother the stag is

^s

^

s

CHASING THE ROE 43

perhaps a grander object, but, as far as grace of
motion is concerned, clumsy in comparison. His
dappled cousin the fallow-buck may have come
over before the Conqueror, but is undoubtedly
a foreign intruder of Asiatic origin, although he
has been sufficiently long settled in his adopted
home to acquire all the rights and privileges of
an English citizen, including the doubtful advan-
tage of having paid toll to Robin Hood and his
merry men in Sherwood Forest, and tithe to the
Church in the person of Friar Tuck. Still these
country cousins must be content with a respectful
recognition of their charms, quite different from
the hearty admiration which any true John Bull
or Sandy bestows upon his indigenous kinsman.
They shared the society and provided the food
and clothing of our palaeolithic ancestors, and
their bones and horns are found in cave and
tumulus with those of hyaena and bear, along
with the flint arrowheads and knives which killed
and skinned them. And if the claim of ancient
lineage and descent is not acknowledged in this
revolutionary age, the roe can appeal to the sym-
pathies of the most ardent democrat on the ground
of his unquenchable love of liberty. Stag and
hind, fallow buck and doe, take kindly enough
to a semi-domestic life, and are familiar objects
in parks and paddocks all over England ; but the
roe does not readily brook confinement within a
narrow fence, running round and round, seeking

44 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

an outlet for escape, until death terminates his cap-
tivity. I believe there are still a few roe in some
very large parks, such as Windsor and Petworth ;
but in the former of these, at any rate, it is probable
that the roe existed long before it was enclosed,
and such apparent exceptions only prove the rule.

Although they do not appreciate confinement
in a paddock, it is easy to tame a fawn, and it
makes a delightful pet until it attains to years
of indiscretion. A tame roe used to follow the
children everywhere round the old castle of
Duntroon, and even up the stairs and into the
rooms. One of his little playfellows had been
obliged to give up his room to a gentleman who
had come to stay there, and the surprise of the
guest was unbounded when the head and neck
of a roe protruded through his half-open door.
" Dear me ! " he said ; " game must be extremely
plentiful in these parts ! "

Yet just as a kitten would be the most de-
lightful of pets except for its unfortunate habit
of growing into a cat, so a roe, and especially
a buck, becomes too much of a handful as a
pet when it grows up. Their beautiful little
horns are both sharp and dangerous, and a tame
roebuck very nearly put an old woman off the
road and into the Crinan Canal by its obtrusive
attentions. It meant no harm : it really expected
to get a lump of the rock-salt with which it
had usually been rewarded for its caresses ; but

CHASING THE ROE 45

the old dame did not appreciate its uncanny
approaches, and narrowly escaped with her life.

Opinions differ as to the merits of the roe from
the point of view of the sportsman, but this, I
think, is mainly owing to the fact that so many
are killed in the course of the winter battues.
No doubt they add an element of the picturesque
to the bag as they are arranged in line before
the door of the lodge, with blackgame, woodcocks,
pheasants, hares, and rabbits, and perhaps a few
odd capercailzie ; but I for one would always
prefer not to pull the trigger of a shot-gun at
an object like a calf, although I have had many
an interesting and exciting day after them with
the rifle. It is true that "old masters" like
Colquhoun and St. John agree in recommending
shot as preferable to ball for roe-shooting, on
the ground that fewer are wounded ; but those
who humanely take the advice of these writers
do not sufficiently appreciate the great advance
which has been made since their time in the
manufacture of weapons of precision, of improved
range, velocity, and accuracy, combined with
lower elevation. I do not profess to be a first-
rate shot with a rifle, but I do not remember
losing a single wounded buck, although I have
accounted for a very large number during the
last twenty-five years. The hounds, if you have
them with you, or even retrievers or spaniels,
soon come up to a roe with a bullet in his

46 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

body ; but, although a charge of No. 5 shot
aimed well forward will roll one over like a
rabbit, young sportsmen are apt to get excited
when [the beaters shout "Deer forward!" and
many shots are fired when, owing to the thick-
ness of the cover or the distance of the object,
there is no reasonable chance of securing the
quarry. I believe that many carry away a few
pellets under such circumstances, and that if the
roe could be consulted in the matter they would
unhesitatingly express their preference for the
bullet.

Perhaps the most amusing way of shooting
roe, when the ground is suitable, is for the guns
to take up positions on heights commanding
fairly open glades in the woods, where the cover
can be drawn by hounds. The scent is very
strong, and almost any kind of dogs take to it
kindly, but a scratch pack of otter-hounds, or
old or slow fox-hounds, are the best for the
purpose. A really fast pack would drive the
roe too quick and too far. The object should
be to get together a few steady hounds with
plenty of "tongue," resolute on the scent, with
perhaps some bustling terriers to start the buck
out of the thickets and bracken. Unless too
much pressed, roe are inclined to trust more to
cunning than to speed, while their habit of run-
ning in a circle and their disinclination to break
cover give the sportsmen every chance. But

CHASING THE ROE 47

perhaps my readers will be best able to judge
of the nature of the sport if I describe one of
the many occasions when not merely my heart,
but my body as well, has been " in the Highlands
a-chasing the deer."

It is a splendid September morning in the
much-slandered climate of Argyleshire, clear
shining after rain, and the waggonette with its
load of sportsmen bowls cheerily along the
straight level road across the Crinan Moss in
the direction of the Canal. On the right, Jura,
Scarba, and the high hills of Mull show them-
selves across the bay. The tide is low as we
cross the bridge over the Add, a small fleet
of mergansers are making their way up stream,
the exposed sandbanks are crowded with gulls
and plovers, while two or three solemn-look-
ing herons, knee-deep in water, are enjoying
"the contemplative birds' recreation." A short
turn to the left along the road between the
Crinan Canal and the beautiful wooded and fern-
clad brae brings us to Dunardry Lock, the place
where the keepers are waiting for us, and where
the Linnet has just arrived with her cargo of
passengers from the north. The usual miscel-
laneous-looking collection of tourists are dis-
porting themselves on the bank, while some are
offering a feeble resistance to a small band of
infant marauders who are pestering them to pur-
chase milk, fern roots, bunches of heather, and

48 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

" sweeties," or frankly demanding blackmail with-
out any offer of an equivalent ; others, with legiti-
mate curiosity, are inspecting the queer-looking
scratch lot that are straining at their couples on
the bridge. Well may they wonder what the
pack is intended to pursue, composed as it is
of four foxhounds, a draft from the York and
Ainstey, two light-coloured wire-haired terriers of
our own particular breed, a small Sussex spaniel,
and York, an ancient black retriever, stone deaf,
and grey about the muzzle, but good for a year or
two of work still. The party descend from the
" machine " and equip and arm themselves with
waterproofs, rifles, flasks, and lunch. Barnakil,
the wood we mean to hunt to-day, is one of those
old natural birch woods which are becoming
yearly rarer, in consequence of the ravages of the
sheep ; but which formerly clothed half the brae
faces in Argyleshire. The leader of the party
leaves us to take up a position where a small
hillock covered with old Scotch firs overlooks a
queer boggy flat surrounded by covert on all sides,
and intersected with open drains and burns ; and
as he takes his seat among a heap of boulders, I
can see how well his grey suit harmonises with its
surroundings. He measures nearly six feet and
a half in his stockings, but his by no means scant
proportions are almost invisible before I have got
very far from him. The next to leave me is one
who has watched for the roe on these hills long

CHASING THE ROE 49

before I did, knows every pass in the wood, and
can conjecture the probable course of a hunted
buck almost infallibly. A truer sportsman never
existed — alas ! that I should have to use the past
tense. In the hunting-field, by the salmon river,
in the grouse butts, or at a hot corner, equally
trustworthy; best known, perhaps, in his later
years on the racecourse, where he loved to see
Queen's Birthday, Nunthorpe, and other horses
bred by himself, carry his colours to victory,
although he seldom made a bet. He takes up his
position on the brae face to the right, while I
hurry on to my pass, which I reach about noon.
We did not make a very early start, nor was it
necessary to do so ; four or five hours' hunting is
quite enough to exhaust the capacities of a limited
pack. The heathery ridge where I take my place
stands high in the centre of the wood, overlooking
on all sides little valleys, or rather glades, through
which the roe are likely to pass ; but, although
I can see well from my point of vantage, it will
be necessary to keep a sharp lookout, as the
colour of a roe's hide bears a strong protective
resemblance to the tint of the bracken, now
rapidly turning brown, and there is more or less
covert everywhere around me of which the light-
footed beasts will be sure to take every advantage.
They will not draw attention to their presence
when hunted, as do the blundering fallow-deer,
but flit noiselessly past like ghosts of that variety

50 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

which does not indulge in blood-curdling groans
and clanking of chains ; but quiet as they may be,
I can hear something already — the deep notes
of Wayward and Valorous ; and I instinctively
clutch my rifle as they seem at first to be coming
in my direction. I catch just a glimpse of a
tawny skin crossing the hill about a quarter of a
mile behind me, and then of the two hounds ; but
soon they seem to have changed their direction,
and a loud report, followed by an ominous silence,
tells me that I am not likely to see that roe alive,
and that I have a little leisure to look about me.
To the west, across the flat peat moss, I can see
the mouth of the Add spanned by the bridge we
recently crossed, with the low part of Jura just
visible behind. In the far north the double peak
of Ben Cruachan is just visible as a pale shadow
above another range of hills. The wild blue rock-
pigeons are flying to and fro along the slaty cairn
which bounds the glade immediately below me,
while, overhead, cormorant, gull, and heron are
winging a stately and steady flight between Lochs
Fyne and Crinan. But already the hounds are
giving tongue again, and I must attend to business.
About three hundred yards away some sheep
take a short scamper, then gather in a cluster,
and stare in their silly way in the direction from
which the hounds are coming. No doubt the roe
is there, but he is keeping under the height ;
for I fail to catch a sight of him until, a few

CHASING THE ROE 51

minutes later, he suddenly appears daintily trip-
ping towards me along the very ridge on which
I am seated in ambush, and stopping now and
again to listen. He is not more than two hundred
yards away, and I can see that he is a buck, and a
good one too. He stands for a moment uncertain
what course to pursue ; there certainly is danger
behind him, but he also seems to have a sort of
instinctive knowledge of something not altogether
right in front. I get a good look at him with my
field-glasses, and admire the beautiful little head,
which has its full complement of six points.
Unless he turns, those graceful horns ought to be
mine, for he can hardly fail to pass within sixty
yards of me, and although he is not a very large
mark I am comfortably seated, and have not the
breathless stalker's excuse for a wide shot, nor the
novice's stumbling-block of excitement. Another
minute and he is started at the renewed music of
the hounds, and is passing at a swift but easy trot
broadside below me. St. Hubert direct my aim !
I pull the trigger, and the ball of the express
strikes him a little far back, but fortunately not
enough so to damage his haunch, and he sinks to
rise no more.

Leaving my rifle, I scramble down the stones
through the brushwood, and have just time to
administer the coup de grdce before the dogs
arrive, and to chide them back in the direction
of the keepers before they can tear the flesh of

52 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

the dead roe. It is not always prudent to leave
one's rifle behind. On a former occasion I was
not so fortunate. A roebuck had crossed me at
the very pass I now occupy, not twenty yards off,
and I rolled him over and over ; but when I had
almost got up to him, he jumped up and bolted
off as if nothing had happened, and " I was left
lamenting." No doubt the ball had either struck
his horn or just grazed the spine, merely stun-
ning him for a moment, for I could detect no
trace of a wound upon him with my glass as he
galloped away, and he got clear off, though the
hounds were close upon his trail.

By the time I have done justice to the excel-
lent lunch, consisting of half a cold grouse, a but-
tered roll, and a slice of cake, washed down with
a little whisky and water, at least two more roe
have passed me within range ; in one case age,
and in the other sex, protected them. In neither
instance were they being hunted, but they had
evidently been disturbed either by the dogs or
the keepers, and were trying to steal away. How
easily that little buck with mere buttons of horns
negotiates the stone dyke below, with the wire
on the top of it ! The doe knows her way about
better, and does not take the trouble to jump the
fence, but makes straight for the little passage
through the dyke, which arches over a small
stream hardly big enough to be dignified with
the title of burn. I am half through a medita-

CHASING THE ROE 53

tive pipe before the flight of three or four black-
game and a late woodcock heralds the approach
of the keepers with terriers, retriever, and two
of the hounds coupled up. They report progress :
another buck has been killed, and the other
two hounds are away after a big one which has
taken right across the moss to Ballimore. Pro-
bably they will have lost him when he crossed
the river, and will be coming back by this time.
Donald is off after them with orders to meet
them at the far end of the wood near Dunadd,
and they are going round there to hunt the
covert back this way. They will not let the re-
maining hounds go unless a fair buck is started,
as we are short-handed as it is, and cannot afford
to lose any more time after does and small trash.

So the day passes with varied incident, and
when we make our way to the road at about
half-past four, we have got altogether four bucks
and a good yeld doe, the latter of which fell
to the shot-gun of the youngest of the party,
who had been stationed near the edge of a young
plantation of firs, with orders to kill anything
he could, as they were " doing mischief" there.
A good bag, but nothing to compare with those
of thirty years ago, when the roe literally swarmed
in all the natural woods round the canal. Then,
however, they were greatly encouraged and pre-
served for the benefit of the lady of Poltalloch,
who was a most deadly shot with a pea-rifle,

54 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

and devoted to the sport of hunting the roe.
Then also the pack was far more complete, and
many legends are still handed down by oral tradi-
tion of the feats of Towler, the old otter-hound,
who never left the scent, and, when he was
bidden to a roe-hunt, frequently interpreted the
invitation like Mr. Jorrocks — " where I dines I
sleeps " — and returned in the morning after a day
and night out, dissipated -looking, rotund, but
contented.

There is a legend, for which I decline to vouch,
that he once pursued a roe for three days, when
the two were seen about twenty yards apart,
looking as if neither could go an inch farther.

It is pleasant enough, too, to stroll through
the woods of an evening, and look out for the
roe in the open spaces. Many a good buck has
fallen to my rifle in Kilchurn banks, Bar-na-slue,
and Kilbride ; but it is not so easy now to get
quietly through the woods as it was before the
succession of gales denuded whole hillsides of
their plantations, twisting and knotting the great
fir-trees like spillikins. Till then the paths were
beautifully kept, but it has taken years to make
them at all practicable, and for a long time they
were in many places quite impassable. A rook
rifle is good enough for a steady shot at this
work. For a roe-hunt I prefer an express, as
one may have to fire long shots at uncertain
ranges, and often at a moving object; but, steal-

CHASING THE ROE 55

ing through the woods and coming upon the
deer at shorter distances and quite undisturbed,
it is easy enough to put a small bullet in a fatal
spot. Even if a buck is startled by seeing you
before you catch sight of him, he is so curious
that he is almost sure to stand to look round
after running a few steps, sufficiently long to
give you a good chance. Mr. Egremont Las-
celles, who used to be particularly fond of a
still stalk, and was most successful at the sport,
told me a curious incident which occurred to
him when after roe. He came upon a buck
standing in an open space in one of the Pol-
talloch woods, and saw that it was looking at
him. He advanced cautiously with his rifle
cocked to see how near to it he could approach,
and, to his unbounded surprise, it allowed him
to walk right up to it, take it by the horn,
and put the knife into its throat. Of course,
he supposed that it had been wounded, or that
there was something the matter with it, but it
turned out to be in perfectly good condition,
with all its organs healthy, and without a sign
or symptom of so much as a scratch.

The wood immediately behind Poltalloch House
has been long maintained as a complete sanctuary
for roe, no shot being fired at them there. As a
consequence, they have always been both numerous
and tame there. It is hardly possible to pass
through any of the short walks behind the garden

56 AUTUMNS IN AKGYLESHIRE

without seeing one or more of these graceful crea-
tures, and many a time have I taken aim at them
as I returned from an afternoon after the rabbits
in the cairn, but of course never drew trigger.
They are not taken in by the apparent danger,
as they are quite aware of the regulations of the
establishment, and buck, doe, and fawn alike face
the deadly tube with a confidence bred of the
knowledge that in that wood it is quite innocuous.
Long may they flourish there unharmed, giving
infinite pleasure to all who delight in studying
wild nature !

It is perhaps rather bathos to turn from their
aesthetic and sporting qualities to gastronomic
uses. I cannot say that I personally have a very
high opinion of the flesh of roe as food. It differs
in flavour from venison, mutton, or hare, although
it has a smack of each and all. Dressed a la
Chasseur with preserved cherries it is very good,
and a haunch larded with a little mutton-fat is
palatable ; but my mind recoils with horror from
Colquhoun's suggestion that bucks ought to be
shot in the winter, when they have lost their
horns, because they are then better eating. For
my part, I would rather have one fine roe's head
than a wilderness of haunches ; and as my eye
rests gratefully on some of my beautiful trophies,
I do not envy the base epicurean who would
sacrifice such lasting pleasure for the doubtful
privilege of feasting on inferior mutton.

CHAPTER IV

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF DEER-STALKING

There are some days and some events that can
never be effaced from the memory. It is more
than thirty years since that upon which I made
my first futile attempt to shoot a stag ; yet as I
sit down to write every detail of the long day
seems fresh and vivid, and the memory which so
often fails to recall events of far greater importance
for once is not at fault. Let the reader go back
with me to the beautiful valley of the North Esk,
and a September morning in the early seventies.

I was then staying at Millden with the first
Lord Cairns. We had had good sport with the
grouse ; but there were no red deer upon the
ground, and my excitement was great when an
invitation arrived from Lord Dalhousie to join in
a deer drive in the adjacent forest of Invermark.
Two of us were to go, and Lord Cairns and the
elder members of the party waived their claims
in favour of myself and a young nephew of our
host. The start was to be an early one, as the
rendezvous was at the Castle, seven miles up the
glen, and we were to be there not later than eight

58 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

o'clock. We were up and dressed soon after six,
and seven saw us under way driving up the narrow
glen by the road which winds along the valley
within sight of the beautiful river. The North
Esk is always a picturesque object in the land-
scape, but on this occasion its aspect was pecu-
liarly wild and grand. Twenty-four hours of
violent and almost tropical rainfall had occasioned
the heaviest flood that I ever witnessed during five
years of visits to its neighbourhood, and it had
risen more than ten feet, and swept away nearly
every foot-bridge along its course ; while stooks
and haycocks, whirled along by the turbid torrent,
told a melancholy tale of devastation and ruin.
The rain was still falling as the dog-cart bore us
towards our destination, but breaks in the sky
promised better weather later in the day.

I suppose there are not many now who remem-
ber the Lord Dalhousie of that day, who received
us at breakfast on our arrival, with old Horatio
Ross, the father of my great friend, Edward, the
first Queen's prizeman, sitting beside him. Old
Dalhousie was crippled with gout, his fingers being
swollen and almost distorted ; but he could still
make good practice at driven grouse at a short
range with a little 20-bore gun and a light charge.
He ruled the glen with a rod of iron, and as-
serted and exercised rights over his tenants and
labourers, the mention of which would make the
hair of the politician stand upright in these more

DEER-STALKING 59

democratic days. Needless to say he received us
hospitably, but his first sentence was a sad damper
to our enthusiasm. There could be no deer drive
that day. The wind was wrong, and even if this
obstacle had not been insurmountable, the swollen
condition of the burns and rivers would have
made it impossible to drive a large tract of
country. Our disappointment and misery were
apparent in our crestfallen faces ; but dear old
lloss soon reassured us. Of course, we should
have a stalk, and let us take it from him that it
would be far better fun than the drive we had
missed. A faint, and perhaps not altogether sin-
cere, protest against his giving up his sport was
offered ; but he would not hear of our not having
a day in the forest after we had come so far ; and
nine o'clock saw us tramping off in charge of the
stalker and a couple of gillies for the first corrie,
about five miles from the Castle.

The ponies stood saddled at the door, but we
were told that we must do without them. Later
in the day perhaps, if the weather cleared, it would
be possible for them to follow us to the scene of
action; butfor the present they would only be a hind-
rance, as it would be impossible for them to ford even
what on ordinary days would have been dry water-
courses or shallow rivulets. The difficulty as to
two going together was solved by the usual process
of tossing for first shot, and fortune favoured me.
On we splashed over bog and moor, often having

60 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

to make a long circuit before we could cross any
running water, large packs of grouse rising many
gunshots away as we advanced. It had been a
wild night, and they all had their heads up and
were ready to take alarm at the slightest danger.
It was bitterly cold, and the rain had been sleet
on the high hills ; but we were warm enough
with excitement and exercise ; and welcomed the
" brave north-easter " as if we had been Kingsley
himself. An eagle soared over the highest peak
in the distance, and before we got to the spying
place a small flock of ptarmigan ran along close
to our feet, and only took to flight upon com-
pulsion and under protest. At another time such
objects would have filled us with excited delight,
but to-day we were after our first stag, and any
meaner creature seemed hardly worthy of notice.
It seemed as though we should never begin the
real sport of the day, although we had certainly
lost no time in covering the ground on our way
out. At last Donald reached a large rock just
below the summit of the brae, overlooking a
corrie, bounded on the opposite side by a steep
and rocky hillside. With what eagerness we
watched his impassive face as he made himself
comfortable, steadied his glass with his stick, and
took the usual deliberate survey of all the ground
around him ! We also did our best to spy ; but
the work was new to us, and we did not know
where to look, or we could hardly have failed to

DEER-STALKING 61

find for ourselves the herd that was pointed out
to us when our guide rose to his feet and shut up
his glass with the unconcerned air which at that
stage of the proceedings is part of the stock-in-
trade of every stalker. There they were, nearly a
hundred deer, as it seemed to me, scattered — too
much scattered, alas ! — over a green spot on the
hillside opposite, not far from the summit level.
There were some shootable beasts among them,
and it would not be difficult to get within shot ;
but we must lose no time, as they were all stand-
ing up and moving about, very restless, after the
storm. There was no need to press us — we were
young and in good training — and we dashed along
after our leader, copying his every movement in
the most approved style, and rather sorry that we
were allowed to remain erect, and could not ford
a river or crawl through a bog to show our zeal
for the sport. I cannot honestly describe any
moving incidents of the stalk. I have since had
a good many days in the forest, but I hardly ever
remember an easier approach. The wind was
right, and all we had to do was to make a long
detour, climb the back of the steep peak opposite,
and come over the summit level under cover, right
upon the deer, which (as all know) are much
easier to get at from above than from below, or
on the level. It was a long walk and a stiff climb,
but that was all, and we were soon looking down
upon a forest of horns, breathless and excited, but

62 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

hopeful. I shall never forget that sight: there
were plenty of stags well within shot, and to my
unpractised eye all of them were, of course, quite
big enough to kill. But such was not Donald's
opinion : there were just one or two worth a shot,
and the one he selected as the right beast was
nearly on the outside of the herd, at least a hun-
dred and fifty yards off. My airy confidence was
rather shaken, but I was a fair target shot and
had done some execution among fallow-deer and
roe with the rifle, and was quite ready and willing
to fire at the mark offered. Again I was stopped.
The herd was moving uphill and I must wait till
the beast came a good deal nearer. Meantime
I could watch it and keep my sight upon it
if I liked until I was told to shoot. The loser
of the toss also got his rifle ready, "in case
I missed," and the period of suspense com-
menced.

I do not suppose we waited long, but it really
seemed a century. The chilly wind whistled over
the hill behind me, and I gradually got colder and
colder, and my fingers more and more benumbed ;
while the restless quadrupeds walked about with-
out my particular stag coming appreciably nearer,
although some of his companions must have been
within fifty yards. By the time that I was told to
shoot, I do not believe that I could have hit a
haystack, and, worst of all, my stag had got
rather farther instead of nearer. But it was now

DEER-STALKING 63

or never, as he showed every sign of an inten-
tion of going round the corner of a knob out of
sight. Alas for the toss and the lucky penny !
If this was to be the first shot, I had far better
have lost. However, bang went the rifle, off
went the bullet — where Heaven knows — fol-
lowed by a second from my companion's rifle,
and away went the whole herd, more frightened
than hurt.

Since then I have fired a good many shots
at deer with fair success, but occasionally I
have been guilty of misses which could only
be described by the word disgraceful. It is a
melancholy moment when a stag gallops off un-
scathed which you really ought to have made
certain of with a bow and arrow ; and the only
thing to do is to bear the stalker's reproachful
glances with resignation, and own up to your
shortcomings like a man. Depend upon it, in
the smoking-room in the evening you will be
more pitied than condemned if you condescend
to tell the absolute truth without excuse or
evasion. " Did you ever see such a miss as
that?" said a relative of my own — one of the
finest shots that ever handled a rifle — to the
stalker, after letting off a stag broadside under
a hundred yards in a good position, on a clear
day, with every condition in his favour. "Aye,
I have, sir, mony a one," was the reply, and
there was no more to be said. But on this

64 AUTUMNS IN AKGYLESHIRE

occasion my disappointment was unmixed with
any flavour of self-reproach. I did not expect
to hit the beast, and indeed it would have been
more or less of a fluke if I had. Moreover I
solaced myself with the thought that, if I had
been allowed to shoot earlier, when I had wished
to do so, the result might have been different.

Here I pause for a moment to discuss the
question whether the advice invariably given
by experts to beginners to wait for a deer to
rise is always sound. There can of course be
no doubt that a deer lying down presents a
much smaller mark than one standing up and
feeding ; but I question whether the delay, often
tedious and protracted, does not more than
counterbalance this advantage. Of course it is
to some extent a question of temperament ; a
phlegmatic man may be able to contemplate a
fine stag reposing at a short distance from his
rifle for an hour or more with an absolute assur-
ance of success ; but, for myself, I always feel
my confidence waning as time passes ; and if
the wait is a long one, I am very apt to dis-
grace myself when the critical moment arrives.
I cannot, however, pose as an authority upon
the subject. I have never rented a forest, al-
though I have killed a fair number of stags in
the course of my autumnal wanderings ; and a
rule so universally observed by the most skilful
and practised sportsmen must be right in the

DEER-STALKING 65

main. Personally, however, I would rather take
an indifferent chance than wait an indefinite
time, feeling my courage oozing out of my finger-
ends ; and where there was no one to say me
nay, I have sometimes taken my own course
with success.

But to return to my first day at Invermark.
I had missed my first chance, but all was not lost,
and we started at once on a desperate attempt
to cut off the herd, which was heading at a gallop
for the neighbouring corrie. Down we ran, leap-
ing over peat hags and scrambling across boulders,
and my companion duly scored his miss at the
herd, still moving at a fairly long range, with
even better excuse for failure than myself. It
was a day of disappointment, and although we
persevered till darkness closed in upon us, being
desperately keen, at last we had to return empty-
handed to a spot where the ponies were waiting
for us. The burns had been running down all
day, and, as soon as I had mounted, my gillie
pointed to a ford in front of me, which I pro-
ceeded to cross. Just as I got to the opposite
bank I heard a cry of distress, and looking round,
saw that my unfortunate companion had been dis-
lodged into the water. His pony had shown
temper and kicked and bucked in the most in-
convenient place. The gillie remarked that it
was always nasty if its stable companion was
too far ahead of it ; a warning which would have

E

66 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

been more effectual had it been given before in-
stead of after the catastrophe. His rider was
unhurt, and only very little wetter than he had
been before ; but he preferred to walk the rest
of the way, and it was past nine before we got
back to the Castle, and nearly midnight before
we regained our quarters at Millden. I never
remember a longer or harder day, for, although
I was in excellent training for walking, I felt the
next morning almost as stiff and sore as if I had
been beaten with a club.

It was not until many years after that I got
my first stag. My lines had fallen in pleasant
places, but although every other species of High-
land sport had been at my disposal, I had not
found a second opportunity of going after the
red deer. All comes to him who waits, and at
last I found my way to Braemore, the beautiful
place of Sir John Fowler. No one but the great
engineer, whose achievements in the field of his
profession are the pride of his countrymen, could
have planned and constructed the sportsman's
paradise I then visited for the first time. When
he bought his estate in Ross-shire, and considered
where to build his house, he determined that it
should stand sufficiently high to counteract the
somewhat relaxing character of the climate, and
should command a view of the strath and of the
sea. At once he was assured that no such site
existed. But with the giants of his calling

DEER-STALKING 67

there are no such things as impossibilities, and
he simply marked on the ordnance map a spot
on the side of the hill of the required altitude
and situation. As the point selected was on
a very steep braeside, 500 feet above the river
and the road to Ullapool, it was not desirable
to excavate a very large site, and Sir John con-
tented himself with space for his house above,
constructing the stables, garden, and offices 500
feet below, with a beautiful winding road of three
miles with an easy gradient to connect the two
buildings, from the upper of which a stone could
almost be dropped upon the other. An unfailing
water supply, perfect sanitary arrangements, and
power for working machinery and making electric
light were provided by damming the burn above
and making a little lake close above the house,
just below the sanctuary in the heart of the forest
below the peaks of Ben Dearig and Ben Lear.
The high-road to Garve naturally divides the
forest into two beats, and when the wind is in
the right quarter, two " rifles" ride together
towards the forester's house, and find, if they
are in luck, that the stalkers and gillies who
have preceded them have spied a stag by the
time they reach their several destinations on
either side of the highway.

The day contrasted favourably from the out-
set with the one previously described. The
morning was brisk, with just a touch of white

68 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

frost, and the wind was very nearly due north,
and the mist already nearly clear of the highest
tops of the hills. As we jogged off together
on our stout little Highland ponies, our hearts
were light and our hopes high. After we had
ridden about three miles my companion turned
off to the right across a ford of the river ; and
two miles farther on I found McHardy, the
stalker, and Rory, the forester, intently spying
with their glasses at something across the summit-
level loch, while their two ponies were feeding
by the wayside, and the gillies waiting beside
them. Not many words were wasted. As soon
as he saw me, McHardy motioned to me to get
off my pony, and strode off with my rifle under
his arm in the direction of the boat-house, ac-
companied by one of his myrmidons, after a
few Gaelic instructions to the others as to what
was to be done with the ponies should fortune
favour us. Had I had my present knowledge
of his habits I should have augured well from
his carrying the rifle, which he never conde-
scended to do unless pretty near the deer. But
it was not until we were in the boat and cross-
ing the water that he pointed out to me a rock,
not a mile off, where he had discovered a good
stag, with some hinds and small beasts, with-
out even leaving the road to go to the usual
spying place. We had not had the usual delay
and annoyance of having to bale and launch a

DEER-STALKING 69

half-waterlogged boat. On every loch at Brae-
more the boats are suspended above the water
in their houses by an easy arrangement of blocks
and pulleys which a child could manage without
difficulty. The stalk began soon after we had
landed on the other side. The ground was rather
flat, and we had to crawl a good deal, and we
were delayed more than once by the watchfulness
of the sentinel hinds, which raised their heads
and stared in one direction, as if they thought
there was something amiss, while we, like St.
Hilda's fossils, changed for the moment from
serpents into stones, and breathed a supplication
that we might escape notice. At last we reached
a spot where there was no chance of their seeing
us, and for a short five minutes I enjoyed the
bliss of straightening my back and legs. A
crouch and crawl, which could not have lasted a
quarter of an hour, although it seemed an age,
brought me to a heathery knoll, close under
which I believed my stag to be lying ; and my
belief was changed to a certainty when I saw
McHardy take the rifle out of its cover, insert
a cartridge, and, beckoning to me to follow,
worm himself very slowly and cautiously up
the little eminence. My heart thumped audibly
as I came in sight of the stag lying down broad-
side within ninetv vards of me with his head
up, and after a whispered colloquy I was allowed
to shoot at him as he was. A shot, a bound,

70 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

a moment of sickening suspense, and he dis-
appeared out of sight. Then the glad certainty
that the just crawling beast that I saw as I
followed in pursuit could not possibly escape,
although for caution's sake I rolled it over with
another shot.

His head, a pretty little one of nine points,
five on the right antler, is before me as I write,
so I have no excuse for exaggeration. He
scaled a little over fifteen stone clean, and was
quite a creditable but not remarkable beast ; but
he was my first, and I would not exchange those
horns for the finest trophy ever made in Ger-
many. Fortune favoured me that day, as I
got another rather larger one in the afternoon.
But I have already occupied too much space to
describe the incidents of this second stalk. As
luck would have it, it gave me an experience
of a different sort, as the deer were moving,
and after a run to cut them off I had a few
minutes' wait, and was then told to take the
third stag out of a small herd which trotted
past. My beast got the bullet fair in the heart,
and rolled over stone-dead, after running on for
about fifty yards as if nothing had happened.

Most of the above had been written before
Sir John Fowler's death, which took place on
Sunday, November 20, 1898, after a long illness
borne with characteristic patience and fortitude.
It may stand as a tribute to the memory of one

DEER-STALKING 71

from whom I received many kindnesses. It is
a strange coincidence that on the last day of
the stalking season of 1897 — the last its owner
spent at Braemore — his favourite pony was killed
by a curious accident. As the deer was being
strapped on to it, it missed its footing on the
side of a slippery brae ; and as it rolled over
the stag's horn penetrated its heart, causing
instant death.

CHAPTER V
THE HERDS OF PROTEUS

I well remember when I was counsel before a
Committee on a railway bill in the House of Com-
mons— a scheme for improving the communication
with the West Highlands — the amusement with
which I listened to one piece of evidence given
on behalf of the promoters. Of course the traffic
was to be enormous ; " feuing " on a large scale
was to cover the barren hills with desirable resi-
dences ; tons of herrings for the poor and lobsters
for the rich were to increase the food-supply of
the metropolis ; millions of roofing slates from
Easedale and Carnbaan were to cover mansions
and cottages from Land's End to John o' Groat's ;
and lastly — and this was what particularly tickled
my fancy — it was probable that there would be a
large importation of seals from the western lochs
and the Hebrides ! The witness believed, or let
us charitably hope so — at any rate he wished the
Committee to believe — that nothing but the want
of railway communication prevented the City mag-
nates from supporting native industry by buying
the acres of sealskin which covered their own

72

THE HERDS OF PROTEUS 73

bow-windows, and the even more ample propor-
tions of their wives, from shippers in Argyleshire ;
and that all danger of a quarrel with America or
Russia over disputed rights to the seals at Alaska
would come to a natural end by the simple pro-
cess of the cessation of the demand for the foreign
article. Who knows whether, if that abortive
scheme had only become law, Reuben Paine and
Tom Hall, the heroes of Rudyard Kipling's
"Rhyme of the Three Sealers," might not have
been alive to this day ! I pricked my ears up at
once. I did not then know as much about gra-
dients, curves, and engineering difficulties as I
do now, but I did know something — perhaps
more than any man in the room — about the
natural history of the West Coast ; and I won-
dered how many truck-loads of seals were to be
brought up to London in the course of the year,
and, if any were brought, what in the world
would be done with them. Certainly a waistcoat
made of pelt of the British seal (Phoca vitulina)
would look more peculiar than becoming; and
although the fishermen and crofters are glad of
his blubber for lighting and other purposes, in
these days of gas and electric light it would
hardly pay to export it to the great metropolis.

I need hardly point out to the intelligent
reader that seals, although they are to be found
in the West Highlands if you know where to look
for them, are not so common as the expert wit-

n AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

ness appeared to suppose. My personal experi-
ence dates back for more than a generation, and
although many autumns have been spent in a
locality peculiarly favourable for the purpose, the
number of seals I have bagged could be counted
on the fingers of my two hands. True it is that,
as I have grown older, the sporting mania has
somewhat yielded to the more humane instincts
of the observer and naturalist, and that for some
years I have enjoyed watching seals when on my
various dredging, yachting, and fishing expedi-
tions without any desire to take their lives. Yet,
although I protest against the useless slaughter
of any living creature, I cannot hold the killing
of seals as unjustifiable, as they are certainly
most mischievous and destructive at the mouths
of the salmon rivers. Their bodies are covered
with a considerable quantity of valuable blubber,
and although their pelts are not adapted for the
manufacture of mantles and waistcoats, they make
excellent gun- covers, or nice mats mounted as
sporting trophies. I leave it to others, however,
to thin their dwindling numbers, and I should
not publish my experiences if I thought I was
assisting their destruction by revealing their hid-
ing-places. For various reasons, they shift their
ground from time to time, and if any should now
visit Loch Craignish in the hope of repeating my
successes, they would probably meet with disap-
pointment.

THE HERDS OF PROTEUS 75

My earliest acquaintance with seals was made
in my undergraduate days in the neighbourhood
of Valentia, on the west coast of Ireland. There
I first saw their round, dog-like heads protruding
from the water, and I borrowed a Snider rifle
from the coastguard and fired sundry ineffectual
shots at them. Finding this unavailing, I next
visited the rock cave afterwards described by
Trench in his " Reminiscences," and swam in
about a hundred yards from the narrow entrance
with a lighted candle in my hat and a club
swung to my wrist in the hope of finding some
seals at rest on the shelving beach at the end,
and encountering and vanquishing them in single
combat. Looking backwards in the light of ex-
perience, I am not so sure that it was to be
regretted that the enemy was " not at home " ;
for, as Monkbarns says, in the "Antiquary," of
the Phoca, " they bite like furies " ; and, attired
as I was, in a hat and nothing more, in a place
where all retreat from the seals was cut off, I
might have come off even worse than Hector
M'Intyre did in his celebrated encounter.

When next I saw the seal in his native ele-
ment the scene had shifted to the west coast of
Scotland, and I was one of a party assembled
on the rocks at Duntroon, on a very hot Sunday
in August 1867. We had been to church in
the morning, and had broken the Sabbath in
the afternoon by a delicious plunge into the

76 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

clear water, and were now lazily sunning our-
selves on the rock, from which in those days the
stake-nets extended far into the bay. There, on
the glassy surface, appeared the head of a large
seal. We were a somewhat noisy party, and
very conspicuous with our white towels, but the
seal swam straight towards us, turning neither
to the right hand nor to the left. He knew it
was Sunday just as well as we did — as almost
every kind of wild animal does — and he literally
approached within thirty yards of us, and in
another minute we could see the corks of the
net shaking, as he explored its meshes in the
hope of getting a salmon without the trouble of
hunting it. This was more than we could stand,
and we pelted him with stones till we "made
him leave that."

This sight renewed in me the desire to get
the skin of a seal of my own killing, and I
confided my wish to my good-natured host, then,
as always, desirous that every guest should enjoy
the sport which pleased him best. The keepers
were consulted, and reported that seals in large
numbers frequented a rock opposite the Goat
Island in Loch Craignish, and that it would not
be difficult, by landing on the far side and crawl-
ing cautiously to the top, to get a good shot.
Three days afterwards the tide was reported to
be suitable, and we set sail in the Troich Dhu
(Black Dwarf), a little half-decked yacht of five

THE HERDS OF PROTEUS 77

tons, with rifles borrowed from our host, deter-
mined that this time at least we would obtain
the coveted trophy. I do not dwell upon all
the incidents of the voyage ; suffice it to say
that, after a long beat to windward, we duly
arrived on the outside of the island, and, after
anchoring our little craft, rowed off in the dingey,
and effected a cautious and noiseless landing at
a somewhat difficult point just opposite the rock
where we hoped to find the seals. Should we
toss up or draw for first shot ? No ; that would
give but a poor chance to number two, as the
seals were not likely to wait for a second barrel.
So, after some discussion, we agreed to crawl up
side by side, each select a victim, and fire at
the word of command — one — two — three. I am
not sure, now, that such an arrangement was
very likely to be successful, but it was the only
means of reconciling the claims of two sports-
men at one and the same stalk. Cautiously we
climbed up the steep side, and then, regardless of
scratches and running water, crawled along side
by side towards the point from which we hoped
to obtain an easy shot. We were almost on
the sky-line, and in another minute we should
have been resting ourselves and selecting our
mark, when a portentous bang awoke the echoes
for miles around, and we rushed, hoping against
hope, to the edge, only to see the rings in the
calm water round the rock, which clearly denoted

78 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

that several seals had actually dived off, and that
but for that horrid explosion our manoeuvre
would have been completely successful. I draw
a veil over our sensations as we waited for some
time watching the black heads bobbing up, as
inquisitive seals asked with inquiring eye why
some one had made such a beastly row and dis-
turbed their mid - day siesta. We fired a few
random shots at long ranges, but our chance
was over for the day, and we returned wrathful
and meditating vengeance to find out who or
what had spoilt our sport, and whether it had
been done by accident or design. Imagine our
disgust when we saw Mr. Pender's yacht under
sail in the offing, and found out that the skipper
had saluted the flag of our little vessel, intend-
ing it, in his innocence, as a graceful compliment.
Lucky for the crew that we carried no cannon
either for purposes of annoyance or defence, or
I believe we should have pursued and engaged
and sunk them, or perished in the attempt.

Years passed before I secured my first seal.
During the interval I shot at their heads from a
boat more than once, and sometimes at a reason-
able distance ; but I never got one. The ball
always seemed to strike near them — sometimes I
could almost have sworn that I struck the very
spot, and tried to persuade myself that I had hit
my mark — but I do not really believe I ever shot
one. A seal usually makes his appearance when

THE HERDS OF PROTEUS 79

you least expect hira, and it is not an easy thing
to snatch up your rifle and get a good shot at him
before he is down again. If he has been up any
time, it is ten to one that he is watching you, and
that he will duck the flash ; and with both boat
and seal in motion it is not easy to take an
accurate aim.

However, a day came at last when I fired a
successful shot from the gig between Poltalloch
farm and Eil-an-righ, and although the seal
disappeared, the reddened water showed clearly
enough that the shot had struck home. I feared
he was lost ; but after a few minutes he rose to
the surface about sixty yards farther off, and we
pursued him in the boat, his dives growing shorter
and shorter each time he rose. At last we
approached sufficiently near him to drive a long
trident-shaped barbed fish-spear into his body,
and we had almost got him to the side of the
boat when he gave a convulsive struggle, twisted
the strong triple barbs almost into the shape of
fish-hooks, and once more dropped off into the
deep water. I feared that he was lost to me after
all, but this was his last effort, and when he rose
again we were able to secure him with the spear
and lift him on board. The skin was mine at
last, but sadly spoiled by the wounds inflicted
by the barbs in his struggle to get off.

I pause for a moment in my narrative to discuss
the vexed question whether a seal shot in the

80 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

water invariably sinks. The experience I have
just stated is one instance to the contrary ; but I
should hesitate to dogmatise from a single case,
although I think that others, and those often the
most positive, are not always equally cautious. I
am convinced that it is impossible to lay down any
definite rule. I have known a shot seal to sink
immediately. I have known one to float for some
time and to go down gradually, just disappearing
below the surface as the boat got within an oar's
length of him ; while others have floated for half-
an-hour or more, like logs, and have gradually
been driven ashore by the wind or tide. I am
quite unable to account for the difference. It
cannot be the situation or nature of the wound, as
it is next to impossible to hit a seal in the water
anywhere but in the head, which is the only part
exposed. My opinion, for what it is worth, is
that it depends upon the condition of the animal's
lungs — whether or not they happen at the time to
be sufficiently filled with air to float him ; but it is
always uncertain, and by far the most satisfactory
mode of getting a seal is to shoot him on a rock,
or else in sufficiently shallow water to make it easy
to recover him even in the event of his sinking.

Of course the most exciting sport with seals,
as with all other game when it is possible, is a
legitimate stalk. To spy your beast from a dis-
tance, to make a long detour, making due allow-
ance for wind, approach under cover of rock or

THE HERDS OF PROTEUS 81

bushes, and kill your seal so dead that he never
hears the shot that struck him, is sport indeed
worthy of the name. The places, however, where
seals can be got in this manner are few and far
between. They usually choose secluded rocks
unapproachable from land, and, sleepy as they
look, are off like lightning at the slightest sound
of oars or footsteps. I used, however, to know at
least two places where at a low spring-tide seals
were almost certain to be found reposing on a
sunny day, and where I have had several success-
ful expeditions. One was off the mainland, just
below the spot where the rugged cairns of Benan
tower above Loch Craignish, where a flat rock,
only dry at low water, afforded a favourite resting-
place for these amphibious creatures, so graceful
in the water, so awkward and clumsy-looking on
shore. There I have frequently watched, and at
least once stalked and secured them ; but, until
the island opposite was inhabited and the farm-
house occupied, a more sure find was a cluster of
long rocks about a hundred yards outside it,
which at a suitable tide was almost certain to
have quite a colony of amphibious tenants. In
that farmhouse nearly a century ago a certain
Miss Minnie, a distant connection of the house of
Malcolm, had lived and flourished, monarch, not
of all she surveyed, for the prospect was some-
what extensive, but at least supreme in her island
kingdom. A solitary place, not suited for lovers

F

82 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

of society, but not without its attractions and
charms for the student of nature. After Miss
Minnie's decease, the farmhouse being deserted
and the ferry disused, the seals took possession
of these rocks on each side, which were far up
the loch and seldom disturbed ; but recently the
farm has been let again with an adjacent island,
the house once more echoes with human voices,
and the traffic with the mainland is renewed, so
the poor seals have been evicted from some of
their last refuges without compensation for dis-
turbance.

Dear, beautiful Loch Craignish ! How many
happy days can I remember on its surface ! As
Macallum and Sandy pull us round from Dun-
troon the dredge is on board, and the ladies'
sketch-books, as well as a substantial luncheon
basket ; but it is a low spring-tide, and the
ostensible objects of our expedition are seals and
oysters. The latter, alas ! are now few and far
between, but some may be secured at dead low
water sticking to the rocks, and, if so, what an
addition they will make to our lunch ! No germs
of typhoid can lurk in the clear sea water, and
one old fellow has five times as much flesh on
him as the degenerate Native of the South, and
three times as much flavour. On we go, inside
Rabbit Island, past the point of Ardifure, and
round under the shore of Macaskan, still in-
habited by fallow-deer, with one solitary shepherd

THE HERDS OF PROTEUS 83

and his family to look after them. Sandy, the
youngest of our boatmen, is in his own country
now, for he is a son of that very herd ; and
many a morning have he and his brother and
sister crossed the loch, and tramped two miles
across the hill on their way to the school at
Kilmartin, a sample of that energy in pursuit of
knowledge under difficulties which accounts for
the superior education of the Scotch in bygone
days. Next we pass the unused limekiln, which
the ladies formerly used as a dressing-room when
enjoying a dip — one, I remember, complained
bitterly of a cow having fallen into her dressing-
room — and so on past Goat Island (no longer
a haunt of seals) to Eil-an-righ. As we pass
along, the fern and the ripening rowan berries
glitter in the sun, the buzzard soars round the
peak above, heron and gull flap lazily past, and
screaming terns hover and plunge into the water,
rising with glittering herring fry in their beaks.
Curlews and oyster-catchers run along the shores,
and the hooded crows too are busy among the
seaweed. Cormorants spread out their wings,
drying themselves on the rocks ; while we are
accompanied by a perfect convoy of guillemots,
swimming and diving around us fearless of harm.
More than one seal has shown his head within
shot of us, and after a prolonged stare lifted his
nose in the air and disappeared, to break the
water again perhaps three hundred yards off,

84 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

perhaps a mile ; but we are not tempted to lire
till we have explored the rocks. The glassy
surface looks as if it could never be ruffled, but
appearances are deceptive, and it is not a nice
place to be attempted by unskilled boatmen or
with a fastened sheet. Like all Highland lochs
under high hills, it is very subject to squalls,
which sweep down with extraordinary sudden-
ness and great violence. But our boatmen are
both capable and cautious ; to-day, however,
there is no need for their skill or care, for we
pursue our course under a sapphire sky till we
reach the landing-place at Eil-an-righ. Some
of the party stop by the beautiful spring, in
its nest of hart's - tongue and lady-fern, sur-
rounded by boulders covered with moss and
hymenophyllum, while I and two of the ladies
go up the path to spy the rocks. No need of
caution here, as we are more than half a mile
off, so we seat ourselves on a boulder and care-
fully spy. Sure enough there are four seals on
the nearest rock : one or two wriggling and
twisting their heads and tails round in awkward
and ungainly attitudes, one large dark fellow
lying perfectly still with his head turned towards
the shore. I carefully mark the exact spot, and,
leaving the others to watch, take my single-
barrelled Henry out of its case and start off on
my stalk. It is easy enough to get within three
hundred yards. Up to that point I have shelter,

THE HERDS OF PROTEUS 85

and cover of rock, hazel, and birch ; but just below
are a flock of wild ducks, and if I put them
up good-bye to my seals. Another round and
I come to a little burn, which finds its way
into the sea just at the nearest point to the
seal rock. It is wet, it is slippery, it is un-
comfortable, but no matter — I crawl along, often
in a pool of water, till I find myself at a point
hardly more than a hundred yards from my
objective. I pause to take breath, then slowly
and cautiously raise my head. There they are
still, and my dark friend is motionless in the
same attitude. I rest my left hand on the
rock, my rifle on my left hand, take a steady
aim, and pull. There is a smoke, a splash,
several splashes, as the seals flop heavily into
the water, but, when the smoke clears away,
my dark friend is still lying there in the same
attitude, absolutely motionless, a thin stream of
blood flowing from his throat just below the
nose. The ball has caught him fair this time,
and his skin is mine. Splashing, sliding, and
jumping, I find my way across the sand and
boulders through the shallow water ; but there
is no need to hurry — the dark seal never moves
again.

After this success oysters sound an unromantic
object of pursuit ; but we get a few, and enjoy
them as a relish to our picnic. The seal is
handed over to Hugh Gillies, the herd, to skin,

86 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

and he is well pleased to do it, as the flesh
and blubber become his perquisite. I should
not care to eat seal myself, but Esquimaux like
it, and Macallum and Sandy assure me it is
very like veal.

We dredge with varied success while the
skinning is going on, and then, as a light
breeze springs up, for once from the right
quarter, we return home under sail. Behind
us, as we turn into Loch Crinan, the sky over
the whirlpool between Jura and Scarba is
flooded with molten gold and purple, and the
sun has sunk behind the islands before our
party lands, after a day for ever to be marked
with a white stone.

CHAPTER VI1
A DAY WITH A SEAL

It is no part of my intention, speaking without
authority and with little experience, to discuss
seriously the ethics of seal-shooting. In spite
of every natural advantage with which a careful
Providence has supplied them, the numbers of
these animals in most localities are rapidly dimin-
ishing, and a logical encouragement of their
destruction could serve no good purpose what-
ever; while, having fairly won as good a trophy
as that which adorns the room in which I am
writing, I feel it is unlikely that I shall join in the
persecution of seals on any future occasion.

I have been carefully brought up to believe in
the rough classification of the objects of sport
under two heads — animals useful for food or other
purposes when dead, and animals which do mis-
chief when alive ; and I am ready to admit that
it would be sophistical to include seals nowadays
under either category, for the useful blubber is

1 This chapter is by my son Geoffrey. I have included it in this
volume because it describes the sport of seal stalking in another
locality, and from a somewhat different point of view.

88 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

seldom saved by the natives whose perquisite it
becomes ; and where seals are mischievous, they
have already been proportionately exterminated,
while, though I have eaten the meat, and should
have no objection whatever to doing so again, I
hardly think that the practice is sufficiently
general to admit of the classification of Phoca
vitulina as a table delicacy.

But when we look further afield and see that
those animals which offer the most irresistible
attractions to the sporting instinct, such, for
example, as the ibex or the chamois, would
arouse neither the enthusiasm of the epicure nor
the enmity of the gamekeeper, we may surely
confess that there may be exceptions to a gener-
ally useful rule, and that the difficulties and
discomforts incidental to the stalking of certain
creatures may serve alone as the sportsman's
excuse for coveting their -trophies. If, therefore,
in accurately describing a day on an island (which
shall be nameless) where seals are in no danger
of extinction, I can show these qualifications to
have existed, I hope I shall at least escape a
hasty classification as an extremely pernicious
variety of the degraded genus " gull-plugger."

It is a fine September morning. Not a breath
of wind moves the tops of the trees which shelter
the house ; everything promises a thoroughly
broiling day. I come down to breakfast ani-
mated by a hope that no stern parental fiat will

A DAY WITH A SEAL 89

drive me perspiring after the sparsely sprinkled
grouse which my unvarying inaccuracy with the
fowling-piece has left upon the small but vicious
steeps of the island. The warm sun and still
air are certain to tempt a considerable number
of seals to bask for most of the day on the
reefs of Ardskinish, or the rocks to the south
of it, and I mean to stalk and secure one before
the day is many hours older. Moreover, to-
morrow is a post-day, so that I shall be able to
send the skin at once to be dressed if I am
fortunate in my efforts. There are two post-
days in the week, a preposterous number in the
eyes of the local postman, which he generally
contrives by self-instituted holidays to reduce to
more reasonable proportions.

Very shortly after breakfast I am under way
with a telescope in its case, lunch in a bag on
my shoulders, and a small "250 American rifle
in my hand. This weapon is not for the benefit
of the seals, though I firmly believe it would
answer well enough, but for any rabbits or
other small game which I may encounter in the
course of the four miles which are before me, or
later in the day, if fortune favours my main
object early. As I pass through the gates of the
carriage drive I come in view of a field which
almost invariably contains a few black game,
and there, sure enough, is an old cock about a
hundred and twenty yards from me, but barely

90 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

fifty from the buckthorn hedge which bounds the
field on the home side. Cautiously I slip back
and sneak along the hedge, but the wily old
bird has witnessed that manoeuvre before, and is
off, having either heard or seen me before my
stalk has proceeded very far. However, I shall
no doubt pursue him or one of his relations
with better success another day, so I regard his
flight with considerable equanimity and resume
my course along the road.

A couple of unsuccessful shots have completely
destroyed my bottle-born confidence — pray do not
be shocked, the bottle was empty, and a hundred
yards from my rifle barrel — by the time that I
have covered about three miles and come up
with the dog-cart, where my '303 rifle is await-
ing me in charge of my sister, who has ex-
pressed a wish to accompany me on my stalk as
far as is possible without risk of putting off my
game, as she is anxious to see seals alive or dead
at closer quarters than she has hitherto suc-
ceeded in attaining. The other occupants of the
dog-cart are two incurable golfo-maniacs. One
of the miserable victims of this insidious com-
plaint claims my sympathy in deference to the
Fifth Commandment. He is not yet in the
acute or solitary stage which drives a man to
dig divots from his carpet with a mashie, and
break his furniture with (so-called) captive golf-
balls, but his behaviour in the presence of

A DAY WITH A SEAL 91

another sufferer makes me fear the worst. For
the past week he has deserted the moor, and
here he will be found to-day, as usual, gazing
reproachfully at the rabbit-hole down which
eighteenpence worth of gutta-percha has just
vanished, or vainly endeavouring to impress on
the uninitiated youth of the island the subtle
distinction between a putter and a mashie. But
I will dwell no further on this piteous spectacle.
Let us pass on.

Another mile brings us to our first spying
ground — a narrow rocky pass in the hill over-
looking the promontory of Ardskinish. Here I
remove from my pockets any things which are
liable to be spoilt by contact with sea water, and
placing them in the lunch-bag, deposit the latter
on the ground for the present with my rabbit
rifle in a cover beside it. Then seating myself
on a convenient stone, I take out my glass and
proceed to spy for seals.

A more dreary spot than Ardskinish it has
seldom been my misfortune to see. A line of
low sand dunes clothed in hard grey bents is
protected from the force of the Atlantic by a
most inhospitable reef, almost entirely submerged
at high tide. A lighthouse just visible on the
horizon, far out to sea, is the last vestige of land
between these rocks and the Western Hemi-
sphere. To the usefulness of this light the
islanders give a valuable testimonial from a some-

92 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

what grimly original point of view, "It's just
spoilin' the place for wrecks ! " Yet to the eye
of an ordinary landsman the shore is plentifully
strewn with masts, spars, and broken timbers,
while long bamboo canes and fragments of larger
trees than the islands produce testify to the
proximity of the Gulf Stream. A small farmhouse
partially concealed by intervening dunes com-
pletes the picture.

But to-day this picture is all that greets the
eye, and the telescope reveals no shining backs
or wriggling hind-flippers on that piece of the
reef which is visible from our present point of
view. Accordingly, we move on to the dunes
themselves till we reach a place whence a more
likely part of the low, weed-covered rocks can
be spied, and here, unless I am very much mis-
taken, we must find our game. And so it turns
out, for after one or two sweeps the movement
of the glass is arrested by a dark object waving
above a rock against the bright background of
sea beyond. A second glance confirms what
experience has told me, that what I saw was the
tail and hind-flippers of a" seal, and in another
moment I have counted five, lying on a small
rock whose weed-covered top is only just clear of
the calm water. It will mean a swim for the
body, if the shot is successful, for the little island
is at some distance from the main reef, but a
thorough wetting is the inevitable accompaniment

A DAY WITH A SEAL 93

of a crawl over these low rocks with their multi-
tude of intersecting channels, and I have never
brought myself within range of seals, either to
watch and sketch them, or when acting as stalker
for a friend, without being pretty consistently
moistened throughout.

Certainly no one could reasonably object to
seal-shooting on grounds of humanity. Lying as
these animals do so near to the water that one
kick will probably carry the coveted skin to a
depth whence it would usually be impossible to
regain it, there is no temptation to the most un-
sportsmanlike to aim anywhere but at the brain,
and this with ordinary luck entails instantaneous
death or entire immunity to the quarry.

Between me and the five seals which I have
just discovered there are some high rocks where
sand leaves off and reef begins, to which both I
and my sister have no difficulty whatever in
attaining. Beyond them, however, there is pro-
mise of an unusually flat crawl before a point can
be reached at which a shot would be reasonable,
and I have a very vivid anticipation of the effect
of the "juts of pointed rock" which will shortly
be searching out the tenderest portions nominally
protected beneath a sodden waistcoat during my
serpentine progress towards the desired goal.

Behind the friendly shelter of the high rocks
I leave therefore the passive spectator with my
glass. My course lies first through a large rock

94 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

pool, quite shallow from an ordinary point of
view, but, as it has to be traversed at a flat crawl,
I emerge ready for any depth of sea above which
I can manage to hold the rifle, which I am carry-
ing still in its cover.

And now, after worming my way for some yards
along a very slight dip in the rocks, mercifully
coated with soft seaweed, I come to perhaps the
most critical point in the difficult stalk before me.
The necessity of keeping oat of sight has led me
some distance almost at right angles to the direct
line between the high rocks and the game, to a
spot whence I can return along a channel which
is fortunately almost empty at this state of the
tide, and thereafter pursue a straighter and more
rapid course. But the channel has first to be
entered, and, though I have chosen the only
practicable point, yet flatten myself how I will,
some part of my clothing, which is fortunately
of an excellent colour for concealment, must for
a moment come into sight of the seals as I drop
over the nearer edge of the hollow.

And, indeed, just as I am blessing my stars for
the safe accomplishment of a ticklish manoeuvre,
down come most of the waving hind-flippers,
up go all the dark shiny heads, and one great
brute gives himself a shove off which nearly
lands him in the water. He fortunately hesitates
on the brink, and after some moments of ago-
nising suspense, during which I dare not breathe,

A DAY WITH A SEAL 95

while the rock beneath my waistcoat seems to
possess a hundred extra and unaccountable angles,
all the seals drop their heads once more, regard-
ing me as a curious seismic phenomenon, or
regretting the rash and inconsiderate haste with
which their last meal was devoured. Fortunately,
I am so nearly across that as soon as I am no
longer the cynosure of ten amphibious eyes I
can drop unostentatiously into the comparative
shelter of the channel.

Creeping back along this, I come once more
into an almost direct line between the starting-
point and the goal, and here, though the far side
of the channel no longer shelters me, the low
rocks slope slightly upwards to the spot whence
I hope to take my shot. It is merely a question
of imitating the progress of the worm for a short
time longer. Vain hope ! After going forward
some distance I find that the desired firing-point
is separated from me by a strait of sea which
the intervening reef has concealed hitherto from
eyes kept down close to the surface of the rocks.
Well, there is no other way. I must slip into
the sea on my right, and trust that the rock
will hide from the eyes of the seals as much of
my person as must be kept above the water.
Having taken the cover from my rifle, since the
goal does not promise much shelter for move-
ments of the kind, I slip in a cartridge, and
let my feet down into the sea. Fortune is

♦

96 AUTUMNS IN AKGYLESHIRE

favourable, and with my face bent almost to
the level of the calm water I succeed in
wading across without mishap, and sliding my
arms and rifle on to the rock raise my head
slowly, and lie with a feeling of relief within
range of the game, most of the lower half of
my body still resting merman-like in another
element.

There are the seals, basking without suspicion,
and as I watch another swims up and joins
them. They lie, not as in most pictures they
are represented, with heads up and tails down,
breasts to the rocks, but in every variety of
attitude.

Most are on their sides, looking like great
slugs, an occasional lazy wriggle being their
only sign of life, save when a fore-flipper is
raised in vigorous assault upon one of those
parasites from which an amphibious existence
does not appear to protect the genus. A friend
of mine once irreverently applied the phrase " a
land in which it seemed always after lunch " to
a seal-haunted rock, and certainly a group of
basking seals is irresistibly suggestive of the
lotus-eaters.

Two of the group before me offer good targets
as they lie,- but they seem to be small, and I
can make out brown patches of old hair which
spoil the appearance of the skin. The best
from every point of view is lying tail on to me

A DAY WITH A SEAL 97

with his head held low and hidden behind the
line of his broad back. However, better no seal
at all than a bad one, so I must wait until he
raises his head. This he seems inclined to take
his time about, though while I was stalking he
seemed ready enough to have obliged me in
this respect had I wished it. At last, however,
three parts of a small circle rise above the line
of his back, and, aiming carefully, I squeeze the
trigger.

Crack ! splash ! splash ! the water round the
rock is disturbed, and four seals have vanished,
but my friend has resumed his old position with
his head hidden from view, and will not move
again.

"Accoutred as I was," except for my coat, of
which I have hastily divested myself, I dash
into the sea and swim across, while my sister
comes from her hiding-place towards the scene,
as far as it is possible to pick a comparatively
dry way.

But, alas ! the disasters of the day are only
now about to begin. As soon as, grasping the
seal by the hind-flippers, I have dragged it out
of my depth, it sinks by the head, and my
swimming powers, though sufficient as I know
to have dragged the dead beast lengthwise over
the sea, are not equal to overcoming the resist-
ance offered to the water by the whole of the
body, particularly as that resistance acts only on

98 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

the side of the hand which is holding the flippers.
So after a short struggle I am compelled to take
the corpse for the present back to its rock again.

And now it strikes me that shooting-boots of
gigantic size are hardly conducive to good swim-
ming, so I take them off, and, tying them together
by the laces, start back again, holding them in
one hand.

" But oftentimes to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,"

and though I swim with greater ease and rapidity,
better would it have been had I persisted in the
old arrangement. As I near the spot whence I
fired, the particular " instrument of darkness "
who rules the destinies of this fatal day unties
the knot, and a wild clutch only succeeds in
rescuing one useless foot covering from a watery
grave ! At such a depth it needs a better diver
than myself to recover its fellow.

I go off as fast as bootless feet can carry me
over the sharp rocks, to a point on the beach
where I remember to have seen a bough of con-
derable length lying among the other driftwood
and wreckage. With this and with the lunch
I return, and we spend much valuable time in
just failing to reach the lost boot with the extem-
pore grappling-hook. The clear water shows it
tantalisingly near — in fact, so well can I see it
that, as we cease our vain attempts, the crabs sur-

A DAY WITH A SEAL 99

rounding and entering its recesses are distinctly
visible.

But time and tide wait neither for the rescue
of boots nor for the devouring of sandwiches, and
the rising water threatens shortly to wash the
dead seal from its rock. What is to be done?
There is no time to skin him where he lies. Off
I rush again, across the rocks, across the dunes,
the bents and thistles stabbing at my bootless feet,
to ask at the farm for a rope, which may enable
me to drag the body by the heavy end, and thus
get rid of a considerable part of the resistance to
the water ; though, of course, my ideal is a rope
long enough to reach the whole of the distance
between the seal's rock and the land. A woman
comes out in response to my knock ; the rest of
the inhabitants are elsewhere, working in the
corn. After she has overcome her surprise at
my appearance, as I stand dripping in stockings
and shirt sleeves, she offers me refreshment, which
I decline, and then goes to search for rope, re-
turning after a considerable interval with a few
short odds and ends of doubtful-looking cordage,
with which I am obliged with thanks and apolo-
gies to depart.

Returning to the reef, I hastily break off as
much of the rope as is too rotten to stand a mode-
rate strain, and, connecting the rest, swim once
again to the body, which the water is by this
time actually touching.

100 AUTUMNS IN AKGYLESHIRE

Here I fasten a loop firmly round the beast
behind the fore-flippers, and taking a turn of the
other end of the rope round my right hand, enter
the water again.

For a while all goes well, and I am compli-
menting myself on the final conclusion of my
labours, when suddenly I feel the touch of the
rope against my instep. Unwilling to be en-
tangled, I pause to let the slack sink out of my
way, and having accomplished this object resume
my former rate. But, alas ! I had forgotten a
secondary result of this manoeuvre. As the rope
comes taut again there must necessarily be a jerk
— yes, sure enough, the jerk takes place, and the
next moment I find myself swimming on with a
yard and a half of rotten hemp in my hand. The
rope was broken, and my seal has sunk where
I cannot hope to reach him, has foundered in fact
within sight of port ! There are feelings too deep
for words, and, besides, there is a lady present.
So silently and gloomily I leave Ardskinish, and
my " damp unpleasant body " is soon being whirled
home on the back seat of a buckboard, a part of
that ingenious vehicle which is not conducive at
the best of times to a pleasant frame of mind —
but now !

The next day we return with grappling-hooks
and no ladies, and my brother, a more skilful
diver than myself, prepares to perform in the
costume or want of it best adapted to success ;

A DAY WITH A SEAL 101

but the weather has changed, it is bitterly cold,
the transparence of yesterday's sea is broken by
wind and rain, and though the bottom is searched
at various points, that seal, my boot, and the
farmer's ropes are never seen again !

However, perseverance is eventually rewarded,
and, in the evening of the Saturday following the
disaster, a short stalk earned me a successful shot
at a good seal, whose body, carried with difficulty
to a safe place, 1 was, owing to various mistakes
and misunderstandings, compelled to leave for the
night. The next day being Sunday, to ask for
native assistance in Sabbatarian Scotland was, of
course, as out of the question as to leave the body
to the mercy of rats and gulls. Accordingly, in
the afternoon I and my brother might have been
seen on the road to Ardskinish, both of us attired
in our oldest clothes, whilst an unusual protuber-
ance of my coat in the region of my chest testified
to the presence of a sack beneath it. Arrived at
the spot we carried the body aside, and although
a seal is not so easy to flay as most animals, as
the skin will not come away from the blubber
without the constant use of a knife, in course
of time the deed was done, and we returned home
with the skin in a sack, oily, but triumphant.
Indirectly we were the gainers, for the natives
almost always cut the flippers off, whereas we
skinned them conscientiously, and thus even the
claws were preserved. And now as I write, the

102 AUTUMNS IN AKGYLESHIRE

beautifully dappled trophy, almost as long as its
owner, is proudly displayed upon the floor before
me to remind me of the difficulties and catas-
trophes which ended in its attainment ; and
which, with the excitement incidental to the
pursuit of an animal so well protected both by
its senses and its surroundings, may perhaps go
far to palliate, if not to justify, an occasional
day with a seal.

CHAPTER VII

OUT OF THE DEPTHS

The West Coast of Scotland has a bad reputa-
tion, as having a damp climate ; but, in spite of
almanacs and rain-gauges, I believe it has been
slandered. In all the autumns I have spent there,
I have seldom known it to rain quite enough.
Truth compels me to own that I may be preju-
diced, as I am an enthusiastic fisherman, and the
little river where I love to spend my holidays runs
up and down in a few hours, and requires a con-
stant succession of " spates " to keep it in order.
All, however, must agree that when you do get a
really fine day in Argyleshire nothing can be more
lovely than the mixture of sea and sky, colour
and shadow, that can be seen from the hill-tops.
As far as the horizon, land and sea, peak and
promontory, stretch out, intersecting one another,
so that any one not well acquainted with the
country would be puzzled to know which is island
and which is mainland, or to realise that what
appear to be lakes are really undivided from the
broad Atlantic. On the north can be distin-
guished the bold outline of Ben Cruachan, clear,

103

104 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

but faint, in the distance. Loch Awe is between
it and the spectator, but is hidden in the valley.
To the north-west, over the round hill of Scarba,
stand out the blue mountains and bold cliffs of
Mull. Straight to the west, across the point of
Craignish, is the whirlpool of Corrievreken and
the northern point of Jura, while a little more
to the south her high double peaks are a con-
spicuous object. South-east, the whole length
of Loch Fyne can be seen as far as Arran.
Numerous rocks and smaller islands also show
themselves in every direction, while dark lines
of tangle or white breakers tell their tale of
sunken reefs, which, with those in sight, make
this coast a dangerous one to the inexperienced
navigator.

The sea is always a subject for ridicule with
comic versifiers, and the torments of sea-sickness
an unvarying source of amusement to shilling
galleries or music-hall audiences. Lewis Carroll
has his

"Vision of nursery maids,
Tens of thousands passed by me,
All leading children with wooden spades,
And this was by the sea.

Pour some salt water over the floor,
Ugly I'm sure you'll allow it to be ;
Suppose it extended a mile or more,
That's very like the sea."

OUT OF THE DEPTHS 105

When this is his description, it is no wonder that
the sea should be the pet object of his detesta-
tion ; but for my part there is something in the
splash of the waves, the rise and fall of the tide,
the smell of the salt, which reconciles me even
to the bathing-machines, the long monotonous
frontage, the negro minstrels, the Salvation Army,
the organ-grinders, the shrimp-sellers, and the
whole posse comitatus of a fashionable watering-
place. Judge then of my delight in a sea not
bearing the remotest resemblance to the satirist's
caricature — a sea which, at the rise and fall of
the tide, rushes and eddies round innumerable
rocks and islands, whirling and roaring like a
mill-race at the rate of eight or nine knots an
hour — a sea as clear as a Hampshire trout-stream,
the calm recesses of which the eye may penetrate
to a depth that I am afraid to state in figures for
fear I should be accused of exaggeration. There,
as you hang over the side of the boat, you may
see the long lazy tangle waving its broad streamers
over the dark rocks, the fish darting about among
the undergrowth, the comical crabs parading,
fighting, and gormandising at the bottom ; and
sea-urchins, from great red fellows as big as a
good-sized melon, called seal's eggs by the natives,
to little ones no bigger than a walnut, which, in
some places, literally pave the sand, and render
it rather an uncomfortable pavement for bare-
footed children, who endeavour to emulate the

106 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

feats of Margate or Hastings on its prickly sur-
face. Every pool left by the tide is full of
corallines and beautiful anemones, and the shore
hunter may gather a rich harvest by turning the
stones, digging in the sand, or examining the
sea-weed — a harvest of " common objects" here,
some of them by no means common in the eye
of an experienced naturalist or collector. But
we must no longer loiter on the shore. " Out
of the Depths" is my subject, and I am longing
for a turn at my favourite pursuit, and must start
without further delay to explore with the dredge
the mysterious depths of this bright and bewitch-
ing sea for the treasures which may lurk among
its crowded hollows, at a depth of twenty to thirty
fathoms. It is always as well to have a direct
object in view, and to-day I am in search espe-
cially of the sea-rush ( Virgularia mirabilis), a rare
and mysterious compound polyp, to be found in
these latitudes, either in the neighbourhood of
the West Coast or in the adjoining Irish loughs.
I have found it before, and know that friends at
the British Museum would be glad to have the
opportunity of examining living specimens, in
view of some of those problems which yet await
solution at the hands of the ardent collector, an
honour which may — who knows ? — fall to myself,
perhaps this very day.

It is high time we were off, but I must not
forget my pensioners, the paupers, as they are

OUT OF THE DEPTHS 107

contemptuously termed — the black-headed laugh-
ing gulls, which come to be fed every morning
after breakfast on the lawn outside the library
window. Before I have begun to whistle twenty
at least are flying all round me ; and they are
down upon the grass, fighting for the sopped
toast and fishes' heads before I have emptied
the bowl of scraps which have been saved for
their breakfast from ours. Certainly, in this
open weather they no longer require the charity
which, in time of winter snow and frost, first
brought them to our door, but even if it impairs
their moral fibre, we cannot resist feeding them
still. I linger a short time, watching one greedy
fellow choking over a large bone, and another
nicknamed Cross-patch who, with outstretched
neck and ruffled feathers, tries to drive his com-
panions away ; and then start hurriedly for
Duntroon, with my pea-rifle on my shoulder.
A fresh north-westerly breeze is blowing, and
a few white clouds are hurriedly chasing one
another across the blue sky, and telling rather
of the shower of last night than promising rain
for to-day. The glass is rising — not has been
rising. There is an important distinction here.
Some say you should never trust the glass on
the West Coast, but this is incorrect. You
should watch it narrowly, and then it is just
as truthful as elsewhere, although the changes
are more rapid. Your confidence, however,

108 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

should not be blind ; stop your ears to the
voice of the aneroid singing —

" Trust me not at all
Or trust me all in all,"

and take your waterproof and plenty of wraps,
especially if you are going to spend a whole
day with me in an open boat, many miles from
home or effectual shelter.

As I pass through the wood a beautiful roe-
buck stares at me within twenty yards, without
a sign of fear, although a touch of the trigger
could not fail to make his graceful horns my
own. His confidence is not misplaced ; he is
as safe from fire-arms as a fox in Leicestershire,
as long as he chooses to remain in this sanc-
tuary, the wood round the house. Next, as I
turn down towards the first lodge, a squirrel, his
bushy tail almost white, runs across the path,
and sits up watching me without dropping the
large bit of red fungus which he is carrying in
his mouth. Him, perhaps, I ought to kill, for
I have passed some tell-tale shoots of ornamental
pine on the path which remind me that my
little friend is as mischievous as he is pretty ;
but, if he must die, others may shoot him, not
I. I decline to be his executioner ; but I should
be sorry to insure his life if my schoolboy son
happened to pass him rifle in hand. Anything
good to eat or mischievous is his legitimate prey ;

OUT OF THE DEPTHS 109

but he has been taught to spare the graceful
sea-fowl and comical cormorants, and to look
upon a " gull - plugger " — a race, alas! not ex-
tinct even in the West Highlands — with con-
tempt and aversion. On I go, along the road
by the shore, picking up a few rabbits on my
way, leaving some at the lodges and carrying
two or three along for the boatmen ; and watch-
ing the beautiful shaggy-fronted Highland cattle,
so terrible in their appearance to Southron nurse-
maids, so harmless and peaceable in reality, as
they wade far out into the water to get away
from the flies ; while curlews, oyster-catchers, and
lapwings run along the sand, filling the air with
their musical cries.

Soon Duntroon Castle, the oldest inhabited
castle in Scotland, is reached. It is truly founded
upon a rock, and has defied the winter storms of
many a hundred years, which must have been
fatal to anything built on less solid foundations.
The boatmen are there, waiting at the gate, to
carry down the sea-water jar, the bait-can, the
bottles, the wraps, and last, not least, a capa-
cious luncheon-basket ; and the sound of wheels
behind me announces the arrival of the remainder
of the crew, with those useful and necessary
articles. There are the children and their com-
panions, and Punch, a little wiry-haired terrier,
who would have dearly loved to have accom-
panied me on foot, instead of coming in the

110 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

waggonette ; and now gives vent to excruciating
shrieks and howls of delight at the sight of the
rifle and its proprietor. He had to be left behind,
because his zeal for sport so far outruns his
discretion, that the raising of a gun or rifle is the
signal for an outburst which sends every rabbit
for miles around scuttling into the safe recesses
of the cairns.

The gig, with the dredge on board and two
small oars as well as the regular ones, is ready for
us, and we are soon all on board, as it would take
far too long to beat round to our destination in
the large sailing-boat with this north-west wind.
The " Pirate King," a young gentleman of eight —
so called partly from his nautical costume, blue
knitted guernsey and fisherman's cap, and partly
because, in his own estimation, he commands the
boat — takes the stroke oar, and his sister is No. 3,
while the two boatmen settle down to their work
in the bows. I am steering at present, but ready
to relieve either of the volunteers at a moment's
notice ; but they will stick to their places for the
greater part of the four miles we have to go, and
help the boat along, and be too much occupied to
feel uncomfortable if there should happen to be a
little jobble where wind and tide meet. On we
go, past Port-na-Dewar, with its great cliff covered
with birch and rowan, and its jackdaw-haunted
cairn ; past Ardifure, with its snug farm and
banks of hazel ; past the rabbit island and round

OUT OF THE DEPTHS 111

into the loch ; then away past the islands of
Macaskan and Eil-na-gore and almost to Eil-an-
righ. On our right is the beautiful bold outline
of Benan, its precipitous sides scarred here and
there where some great boulder has lately broken
away and bounded down the side to join the
" tumbled fragments of the hills " which lie below
the brae, of all sizes and shapes.

At length we have reached our destination, and
it is time to get the dredge overboard. One end
of the rope is fastened to a seat, and the other to
the dredge — a common oyster dredge of about
two-feet beam, with a stout twine net, with a one-
inch mesh, instead of the usual iron chain netting.
This I find best for my work on this rocky shore.
While one man is making ready the dredge, the
other fastens between the front seats a large bag
of waterproof sail-cloth, in shape something like
one of those receptacles into which hop-pickers
strip the bine of its blossom. This is destined to
hold the contents of the dredge, to be turned over
and searched by plenty of willing hands, while
itself is making another tour of discovery at the
bottom of the loch.

Over it goes with a splash, and Punch would
have been in after it if he had not been caught
by the collar. That officious little person thinks
nothing can be done properly without his help ;
but although he can swim like a duck, and dive
also well enough to get stones and ginger-beer

112 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

bottles out of the shallows of the Serpentine, he
could hardly recover the dredge, which is now
rapidly nearing the bottom, at a depth of about
thirty fathoms. The men settle to their oars, as
there is not breeze enough in this sheltered place
to-day to make it worth while to set the sail ; and
at all times it is difficult to go too slow when
dredging. It is hard work while it lasts, but it
will not last long, as the net is sure to be full
of something before it has gone over more than
twenty-five yards of the bottom.

One hand on the rope, just to see that it is
keeping on the bottom, and that it does not come
to an anchor on some inconvenient boulder, and
there is time to look about. There seems to be
an unusual commotion in the neighbourhood of
the narrow promontory of Macaskan, just opposite,
and all the cattle are collected on the shore. All
— no, not all ; for now we can see what is going
on — a line of men and dogs is gathering them
there, no doubt to drive them into the sea to swim
across the half-mile of water which separates them
from the mainland, a first stage on their journey
to Falkirk Tryst. What a scene of life and
animation ! What shouts of men, what bark-
ing of collies ! What excitement as one great
stupid beautiful beast breaks away again and
again, carrying with him, by the force of bad
example, two or three of his more docile com-
panions, to be headed back again and again by

OUT OF THE DEPTHS 113

the sagacious collies, who are off round him at a
word or a sign from their masters, with a pre-
cision astounding to any one who does not recog-
nise the intellect — I will not call it the instinct —
of a Scotch sheep-dog. But we must be getting
up the dredge ; the cattle will not be in the water
yet for a bit, and we shall have ample time to see
them swim across after the haul has been secured.
Now, then, lift away, all together, and up it
comes, three pairs of eager eyes straining over
the side as the seemingly interminable rope is
gradually coiled in the boat.

We have got something ; that is quite evi-
dent from the weight; and I try to hope, as
usual, for some novel and hitherto undiscovered
crustacean or starfish, while experience and reason
enable me to hazard a pretty good guess of what
is really coming. At last the dredge is in sight,
and there is no long trail of white mud, no
dark tangle ; so, as I expected, this time we
must have been over hard bottom mixed with
shells. One more lift, and the haul is on board
and speedily emptied into the bag — one great,
brilliant, fourteen-rayed sun-star slipping off the
outside of the mesh just as the iron appears
over the side. "All right, old fellow; good-
bye ! We don't want you ; and if we did, there
are plenty more where you came from."

The catch is heavy enough, but it appears
as if there were nothing but bushels of " King

H

114 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

Harrys," the scallop of the pilgrim, and the pin-
cushion, of various hues, red, yellow, brown
speckled, and light; and with them a writh-
ing mass of hairy, brittle starfish, many of whom
have already contrived to part with some of their
limbs in that loose and careless fashion which
characterises many marine species, their own
above all others. Throw the brittle starfish over-
board, and put the largest of the " King Harrys "
into the basket ; they are excellent, scalloped or
curried ; but the small ones may go back, for
there will be many more than we can require
for any purpose before the day is over. Gradually
the heap diminishes, and other creatures begin to
make their appearance — pretty swimming crabs,
nicknamed velvet fiddlers, their hind-claws flat-
tened into a paddle ; and queer, slow-moving
spider-crabs, making up by craft for their want
of agility, for they have dressed themselves up,
one with seaweeds, and another with sponges and
live ascidians, so that when not in motion they
can hardly be distinguished from the bottom of
the sea, and any confiding creatures which come
within their reach are apt to discover too late
that the seemingly inanimate objects have long
claws and healthy appetites. It is most amus-
ing to watch one of these crabs in confinement,
combing the seaweed on his back like a gentle-
man parting his hair. My children christened
one the Grand Old Man ; why, I cannot imagine,

OUT OF THE DEPTHS 115

as he did not bear the most distant resemblance
to the distinguished statesman who was usually
known by that title. Spider-crabs are of dif-
ferent sizes and shapes, and many species are
common here, some with scarcely any body and
very long and attenuated legs, some clothed,
some bare, some great, and some small. Next
we see a large red-coloured hermit-crab, look-
ing stupid and unprotected, with its soft, flabby,
degenerate tail, no longer covered by a stolen
shell. Search the now diminished heap, and
the home he has abandoned in his fright will
soon be found. There it is, an empty whelk-
shell, covered completely over with a curious
soft lilac-spotted garment, the cloak anemone,
which is also in an excited state, as appears by
the long, thread-like lilac acontia which pro-
trude from its spots. Put it into the sea-water
bottle, and the hermit with it ; with what alac-
rity he darts back into his house, and closes
the front door with his large right claw ! The
two thieving rogues are united at once — both
quite at home, one inside and the other outside
the shell manufactured by its original proprietor
for its own exclusive use and convenience. Surely
there are few more curious creatures than this
parasitic anemone, never found except on a whelk
shell, and one inhabited by a hermit crab, upon
which it is dependent, as it soon dies if deprived
of its companion by desertion or death. Why,

116 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

I do not exactly know ; whether it yearns for
carriage exercise or the leavings of a crab's food,
but the fact is undoubted, and it is the delicacy
of the hermit crab that makes the cloak anemone
so difficult a creature to keep in confinement.
There is another, a rarer and more beautiful para-
sitic anemone, which also lives upon the out-
side of shells, specimens of which I have taken
near this very spot ; but it seems to prefer long
spiral shells, and, although it selects inhabited
hermitages, does not insist upon dying of grief
or starvation if the original usurper relinquishes
possession. I have kept and admired these for
months, living on empty shells, and returned
them to the sea alive and flourishing at the
end of my holiday.

I have not half exhausted the description of
my haul, although by no means a first-rate or
exceptional one ; but it is time to turn round and
have another look at the cattle ; so I will leave
the description of the numerous starfish, tube-
worms and smaller creatures for another dredge.
There is nothing here that I am not pretty sure to
get again before the day is over. There are all
the beasts, black, red, and dun, collected on the
spit of land nearest to the water with a line of
men and dogs behind them. Splash ! In goes
the first, and the rest soon follow, boldly enough,
when once they have made up their minds. Two
or three of the dogs pursue them into the sea,

OUT OF THE DEPTHS 117

and half-a-dozen boats are soon launched behind
them, those of the crew who are not rowing,
splashing with long green boughs and shouting.
How low the cattle swim in the water ! there is
nothing visible but a forest of horns. Every now
and then one attempts to turn, and the excite-
ment is renewed ; but as they get farther from
the island these attempts to break back become
less and less frequent, although the herd still
requires guiding, and the pace becomes slower
and slower. When the opposite shore is sighted,
the course at once becomes straight and the pace
improves, and soon I can see, with a glass, first
one and then another land and shake himself dry
upon the shore, till all are safe on terra Jlrma.
All the time they are crossing they make a
strange blowing sound, like that of a porpoise,
and they are evidently frightened at first, as on
landing they gallop away from the collies into
such rough ground that the dogs are called off
and a man sent round to drive them carefully and
cautiously into the pass ; soon, however, they are
going across the hill out of our sight, at a quiet
jog-trot pace, and we may resume our dredging.

This time, when the dredge comes up, there is
more mud in it, and fewer shells, although it is
easy to see by the writhing motion that there is
plenty of life in the grey, sticky deposit. A good
deal is allowed to be washed away before it comes
on board, but slowly and cautiously, as if we

118 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

were gold-washers with their cradle, and in much
the same manner, for it was about here that we
last secured the rare creature of which we are
now in search; and it is just in this soft sort
of ground that it is usually found. A shout of
joy and triumph issues from the mouth of the
youngest of the party, as he produces a very small
reddish object about the thickness of a piece of
worsted, and not more than three inches long, in
which he has recognised a sea-rush ; and I have
already got hold of a larger specimen some nine
inches long, but, as I am going to explain, not by
any means so valuable or interesting a one as his.
However, both of them, and any more we can
find, will be sent to Professor Bell, of the Natural
History branch of the British Museum, to-morrow
morning by the parcel post, and in the meantime are
carefully consigned to a special bottle by them-
selves, that no rash intruder, no gormandising crab
or starfish, may endanger the least of their polyps ;
and all faces are happier — I was going to add all
appetites keener, but that is impossible — as we
sit down to our well-earned luncheon on the
island, where we land to picnic and stretch our
legs before we resume our dredging.

But what is there in this sea-rush which makes
it so interesting, even to an unscientific inquirer
like myself? Because it has all the charms of an
unexplored country— there are still new facts to
be ascertained about it ; and even in this scientific

OUT OF THE DEPTHS 119

age it is perfectly evident that the last word of
its history has not yet been written. There is
not even any really good picture of it in any
work upon natural history, whether technical or
popular ; even the drawings in Professor Mar-
shall's interesting and able work on the Oban
Pennatulidae cannot be considered satisfactory by
those who have had the opportunity of watching
the living creature for weeks together. As it
comes up in the dredge, an ordinary specimen
resembles a knitting-needle, stocking-making size
— if I was a lady, or it was a fish-hook, no doubt
I might identify it by a number — made of a white,
hard, brittle, chalky material, and covered with
small fleshy pink appendages to within a short
distance of both extremities. Each of these ends
has been flat, as if broken off short, in every speci-
men except one that I have seen. That one
was the small one my boy has just picked out of
the net, which terminates at one end in a small
bulb, a circumstance which quite justifies his
exultation, and his request that when it goes
to the Museum it may be described as being of
his discovery. No collection in the world pos-
sesses a perfect specimen. There is only one
known example — at Glasgow — which is feathered
with polyps to the top ; while even that one is
without the bulb, which is the glory of my speci-
men, and which is unquestionably of very rare
occurrence, although not so absolutely unique as

120 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLLSHIRE

one complete at the other extremity. In sea
water the fleshy appendages expand as little
flower-like polyps, united to the stalk by a semi-
transparent medium, each capable of a separate
existence, and to be seen under the microscope
feeding healthily " with the pinnules grasping an
animalcule and gently conveying it to the mouth."
It is this curious mutilated condition of the ordi-
nary virgularia — the problems it suggests, still
unsolved in my opinion — and the hope of attain-
ing the pinnacle of a collector's ambition, which
makes it so interesting. Small and insignificant
as it may be, the first discoverer of an absolutely
perfect specimen ought to feel

" Like some watcher of the skies
When some new planet swims into his ken."

What, then, are the reasons given by writers
upon this curious zoophyte to account for the fact
that while perfect specimens are supposed to ter-
minate in a feather at one end and a bulb at the
other, like its first-cousin, the sea-pen (Pennatula
johosphorea) , it has never been found with both,
and seldom with either ? To put it shortly, their
theory is, that it stands up with its bulb planted
in the mud, and that fish invariably bite off the
feathered end, while the brittle nature of the
stem, and a power it apparently possesses of draw-
ing itself back when touched or pulled, accounts
for the root being almost always broken by the

OUT OF THE DEPTHS 121

dredge or trawl at the depth of fifteen to thirty
fathoms.

Then, is it established conclusively that these
creatures live planted upright in the manner
suggested ? I confess I was thoroughly sceptical
on this point until I was referred by a passage
in Marshall's book to Darwin's " Voyage of the
Beagle" page 126 of the edition of 1889. He
there describes a kind of sea-pen {Virgularia
patagonica) which he saw at Bahia Blanca. " At
low water hundreds of these zoophytes might be
seen, projecting like stubble with the truncate
end upwards a few inches above the surface of
the muddy sand. When touched or pulled they
suddenly drew themselves in with force, so as
nearly or quite to disappear. By this action the
highly elastic axis must be bent at the lower
extremity, where it is naturally slightly curved.
... It is always interesting to discover the foun-
dation of the strange tales of the old voyagers ;
and I have no doubt but that the habits of
this virgularia explain one such case. Captain
Lancaster, in his voyage in 1601, narrates that
on the sea sands of the island of Sombrero, in
the East Indies, he ' found a twig growing up
like a young tree, and on offering to pluck it up
it shrinks down to the ground and sinks, unless
held very hard.' On being plucked up, a ' great
worm is found to be its root, and as the tree
groweth in greatness, so doth the worm diminish,

122 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

and as soon as the worm is turned into a tree it
rooteth into the earth and so becomes great' "

I have quoted the passage at length because
it is absolutely the only direct evidence as to
the upright habit of the virgularia ; all the rest
is conjecture, possibly well founded, but still
conjecture only, derived from its shape and
structure, and appearance when obtained. I, of
course, accept Darwin's evidence absolutely on
a point he vouches as an eye-witness, but it did
not seem to me entirely to conclude the contro-
versy as regards the British species, which is an
inhabitant of deep water, and which no one has
seen in its natural position. I therefore examined
the collection at the British Museum in order
to find out how far the Bahia species is identical
with, or similar to, the British, but unfortunately
it contains no example of Virgularia patagonica.
I am bound, however, to add that the speci-
mens of virgularia from Trinidad and Panama
are sufficiently analogous in appearance to the
British to justify the conclusion that their habits
are likely to be similar. From the appearance
of the creature in confinement, I should have
considered it impossible that it could withdraw
itself into the soil when touched. It is very stiff
and brittle, and does not present any appear-
ance of muscular energy, or of that peculiar elas-
ticity which Darwin alludes to. I fully admit,
however, that the balance of evidence is de-

OUT OF THE DEPTHS 123

cidedly in favour of its occupying an upright
position in the mud, and I accept that theory
as probable, if not absolutely and conclusively
demonstrated ; but I think writers are going too
far when they not merely treat this as indisput-
able, but use it as an argument conclusively
establishing similar habits on the part of its
British first-cousins, the sea-rope and the sea-
pen. With regard to these two, I shall have
a word to say later on, and in the case of the
latter, at least, I think I can produce strong
affirmative evidence tending to a contrary con-
clusion. Next, as to the cause of its curious
mutilation. It does not appear in either of the
other sorts, and yet their tops look as if they
would be far more tempting to a fish than those
which they are supposed to devour so greedily.
Codfish and haddocks, the suspected culprits,
are not common at the spot where I have ob-
tained my specimens, and it is difficult to be-
lieve that out of the numbers discovered only
one should have escaped the voracity of such
enemies. No one who has studied marine zoology
at all would be inclined to doubt that an inces-
sant struggle for existence, and ceaseless slaughter
goes on beneath the waves, but I hesitate to con-
demn the fish on the evidence produced as yet.
It is, however, a curious confirmation of their
guilt, as far as it goes, that of five fragments of
virgularia taken by Mr. Darbishire, of Manchester,

124 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

from a haddock's stomach near Scarborough, no
less than three should be tops, which is certainly-
significant when we remember that only one speci-
men has ever been dredged perfect in respect of
that part. On the other hand, it must be remem-
bered that Darwin describes the specimens he
saw by hundreds at Bahia as truncated.1

With regard to the Funiculina, or sea-rope,
I will say very little, as I have only seen it once,
except in a museum. It is much longer, larger,
and more elastic than the other allied species ;
is often obtained perfect, and attains as great
a length as five feet. It has a curious square

1 Note on the Virgularia mirabilis. — Subsequently to the date
(August 1890) when the above article was written, I had many
better opportunities of studying the Virgularia. I dredged one
large specimen with the bulb intact which may now be seen in
a side case in the room at the British Museum in Cromwell
Road devoted to British zoology. It is very well preserved, and
will repay inspection, although it conveys no idea of the beauty of
a living specimen. I no longer have any doubt that all specimens
naturally exist with a bulb planted in the soft mud, as I have had
the opportunity of testing the fact by experiment. I dredged a
good many small specimens with the bulb intact (when two or three
inches long, they are much softer and less brittle than larger
specimens), and put them in a wide-mouthed pickle jar filled with
sea-water, and some of the muddy sediment which comes up in the
dredge with them when they are found. They soon fixed them-
selves upright in the mud, and throve so well in their environment
that I succeeded in keeping some of them alive for two months
under constant observation. When touched with a camel's-hair
brush they rapidly retracted themselves into the mud in the
manner described by Darwin ; sometimes disappearing altogether.
The calcareous stem hardens as they grow older, and becomes so
brittle as to fully account for the rarity of the bulb coming up in
the case of mature specimens.

OUT OF THE DEPTHS 125

calcareous stem or bone ; and my boatman, a
most accurate and intelligent observer, described
it to me minutely before I had ever read of
it or seen it in spirits. He said he had got
great numbers at a place near Ballachulish,
and that the schoolmaster, who was an ardent
fisherman, had told him, accurately as it turned
out, that wherever they were found, it was sure
to be a good mark for haddocks. He described
the creature as a sea-pen, about the length and
thickness of the handle of an umbrella, and added
that his friend the schoolmaster had ingeniously
made picture frames with the white ivory-like
"bones" arranged in diminishing sizes.

With regard to the sea-pen (Pennatula phos-
johorea), I can speak from considerable personal
experience. There are at least two of my speci-
mens— one dried, the other in spirits — exhibited
at the British Museum, and I brought them
another alive last November, which lived some
days, and excited much interest before he suc-
cumbed to change of scene and diet, and the
fatigues of the journey. One point, at least, he
settled before his decease. Dr. Johnstone, in
his " History of British Zoophytes," says in oppo-
sition to the opinion of former observers, that
he does not move. "When placed in a basin
or plate of sea-water, the pennatulae are never
observed to change their position." Certainly
this one moved freely in the tank, as did others

126 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

I have observed, and Professor Bell called my
attention to the trail he had left behind him.
The sea-pen is a beautiful object, its great
feather-like pinnae expanded and waving, with
all their little flower-like polyps out and on
the alert, and its semi-transparent quill expand-
ing and contracting, and its general appearance
exactly resembling the feather of some curious
bird. The Latin names, with their English
equivalents, sea-rope, sea-pen, sea-rush, are a
true boon to the unscientific naturalist, and I
could wish that all other species were christened
as suggestively, according to their appearance,
instead of merely commemorating by their names
the vanity of their first discoverers, and illus-
trating the difficulty of coining European sur-
names into tolerable Latin.

With regard to these creatures the older
opinion invariably was, that they often swam
about near the surface. The curious may read
the various statements of earlier observers, col-
lected to be contradicted in Johnstone's work.
Bodasch, the original discoverer of the Funiculina,
asserts that he saw the sea-pens swimming in
a beautiful phosphorescent light in 1749, when
going to Marseilles. I lighted upon a curious
confirmation of this when searching the Museum
for the virgularia Darwin saw at Bahia. Among
the collection of sea-pens, I found what was
evidently the calcareous centre of one, described

OUT OF THE DEPTHS 127

in Gray's catalogue of 1870 as Osteocella Cliftoni.
It is labelled as follows : " The backbone taken
out of the marine animal in bottle marked No. I.
I caught him swimming with great rapidity in
shallow water. — G. Clifton." The catalogue pro-
ceeds (the bottle never reached the Museum) :
" It has much the appearance of being the
bone or axis of a pennatula, but they hardly swim
with great rapidity." I am glad to say that
the words in the Museum catalogue are marked
with an imperative d, which I suppose means
dele. Probably the corrector agrees with me
that it is better to accept the testimony of an
eye-witness in the first instance, making all
due allowance for inaccuracy or exaggeration,
having regard to the character, temperament, and
previous record of the observer himself. It is
hardly necessary to remind my readers of the
many instances in which travellers' tales, dis-
believed and discredited at home, have turned
out to be true, thus turning the tables upon
the uncivil and incredulous. I cannot, from
personal observation, throw any light upon
the question whether the sea-pen swims or
not; but I think I can help to disprove its
alleged erect position in the mud. In the first
place, all the specimens I have yet obtained
have come, not from a soft muddy bottom, but
from a bank of hard sand, where they have
come up entangled in the long line set for

128 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

plaice or flounders, or transfixed by one of the
hooks. I was not alive to all the conditions
of the problem until the present year; but I
can vouch that the last specimen I obtained
had a hook right through the extreme tip of
the bulb of the quill, which is alleged to be
buried inches deep in the mud. I am not
writing a scientific treatise, but my digression
is not without an object. Oban, the most
favoured haunt of the Pennatulidse, is also the
summer head -quarters of innumerable yachts.
Many owners, it is roundly asserted, are not
altogether innocent of splashing for sea trout
at the mouths of the rivers, in defiance of the
law, and other poaching practices ; while some,
alas, sink so low as to persecute and harry
the beautiful, innocent, and useful sea-gulls and
terns. Let them rather exert their energies in
the attempt to solve such problems as I have
indicated, and the many others which every
day's dredging suggests. If they will only try
it, they will find their reward in a new reason
for visiting scenes of wonderful beauty, and in
an amusement of surpassing interest. Amateur
trawlers, also, and professionals, might do good
service by keeping an eye to the rubbish ; it
fills my soul with profound melancholy to think
what treasures are daily thrown away under that
contemptuous designation. I may suggest ex-
periments to managers of aquaria, especially at

OUT OF THE DEPTHS 129

such stations as Rothesay, Oban, and Glasgow.
There are also further points to be investigated,
such as the nature, extent, and origin of the
phosphorescence which is another characteristic
of all the creatures, and the reason why the
sea-pen is called Pennatula phosphorea. Is this
light electrical, or due to some spontaneously
inflammable substance? or is it due to special
phosphorescent organs, bands of fatty substance
— " cordoni luminosi," as Panceri calls them in
his studies on the phosphorescence of marine
animals? Lastly, as Darwin says, "What is an
individual?" How suggestive is the fact that
these creatures are, from one point of view, the
homes of innumerable polyps, feeding indepen-
dently, and even capable of separate existence ;
while from another they are one creature re-
treating into the mud, in the instance of the
sea-rush, crawling and waving its feathers with
one motion, in that of the sea-pen ; even if its
swimming rapidly, or at all, is treated as dis-
proved ! If a colony, how obedient are its
subjects ! if a unit, how singularly independent
are its different parts !

But it is high time that we should return to
our dredging, and this time we pass across
nearly to the other side of the loch before we
let down our net for a draught. As we row
across, a seal puts up his round, shiny head
within fifty yards of the boat, and after a good

I

130 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

stare, dives down as if he did not like the looks
of the party ; and he only reappears after some
five minutes, as a mere speck on the surface of
the water. I do not even grasp at the rifle,
which is in its cover at the bottom of the boat ;
but it was the death of a seal which, on a
former occasion, enabled me to find the right
place for dredging up the Serpulae, which are
so beautiful either alive as aquarium specimens,
or dead as coral-like ornaments. I had finished
my lunch on the island a little lower down than
we are now, and was enjoying the pipe of peace,
and watching the buzzards wheeling round the
opposite peak, and two old ravens soaring,
croaking over my head, when a seal made his
appearance suddenly within fifty yards. The
opportunity was too good to be lost, as I had
promised a skin to a friend, and in another in-
stant he was struggling on the surface, soon to
struggle no more. He floated until the boat,
hastily launched, almost touched him, but sank
just as the men were reaching out the boat-
hook towards him. Next morning the boatmen
easily recovered his body with the small trawl-
net, and with it a quantity of very large white
twisted tubes, which I found on the rock where
they had been thrown away. Next day saw me
round at the same place with the dredge, and
in the first haul, just where the seal had sunk,
the net came up quite full of these Serpulse, far

OUT OF THE DEPTHS 131

larger and more beautiful than I had ever seen
before in any previous years' dredging ; and this
place once discovered, I have never since failed
to obtain similar specimens when wanted — a
good illustration how curiously local are the
various sea creatures. Their large red flowers
protrude from every tube, the living petals sur-
rounding a central stopper, and retreating in an
instant if the shadow of anything in motion
comes across them. In this hasty disappearance
they are like another tube-worm, the Sabella,
which makes its tube not of lime but of sand
and mud, and keeps out its large striped, brownish
fan unless actually touched or molested.

I must pass rapidly over the rest of our after-
noon's sport. Every now and then the contents
of the dredge are discoloured with a brilliant
violet dye, the unfailing indication that we have
captured a sea-hare. This curious mollusc carries
its shell inside, and like the cuttle-fish, exudes
a quantity of colouring matter when captured or
disturbed. Its name seems singularly inappli-
cable to the round, dark, gelatinous lump which
is discovered in the middle of the violet dye,
but is readily understood when once the creature
has been seen crawling along, sticking up its two
comical long ears. Other sea-slugs are captured ;
the orange-coloured Doris, its back adorned with
the yellow tassel which represents its lungs, and
the graceful feathery Eolis. Every haul provides

132 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

specimens of the Comatula, or rosy feather-star,
which should be looked upon with respect as
the sole British example of the oldest family of
starfish on earth, the stalked Crinoids. Every
time the dredge comes up there are half-a-dozen
at least of these dark-red objects limply adhering
to the sides, or mixed up with harder creatures
to the detriment of their brittle feathers. If put
into sea water they immediately expand, and
present the appearance of a living crimson-lake
sea-weed, with ten slender feathery fronds ex-
tended from a common centre. If you examine
them more closely, you will perceive that the
ten fronds are really five arms, each divided
near the point of junction with the cup-shaped
base, which contains the small soft body. When
young, it still more nearly resembles a plant or
seaweed, as it grows attached to the sand or
rock by a long simple jointed stalk, and waits
until it has attained a certain degree of maturity
before it breaks loose from its fetters and dares
the perils of existence as a freely moving and
swimming creature. Its colour varies a good
deal from dark to light red, with parts of its
arms often nearly white, and I have caught one
of quite a sandy colour. I also once captured
one of a light greyish colour, with feathers so
long and hairy in their appearance, and alto-
gether so different in its characteristics from
ordinary specimens, that I almost hoped it was

OUT OF THE DEPTHS 133

a new species, and not merely a curious variety.
Alas ! it arrived at the Museum during holiday
time, and was so utterly broken to pieces before
it could be examined that it was impossible to
identify it. I have sent up several Comatulse in
spirits ; in sea water they invariably break in
pieces. Some take their place in the spirit room
of the Museum with many others, to illustrate
the geographical distribution of the species ;
others went to a distinguished scientific inquirer,1
who was making a microscopic investigation of
the parasites which infest them — a proof of the
fact that the dredge opens another half- explored
world to the microscopic student.

Other starfish make their appearance in large
numbers ; numerous specimens of the common
brittle sandstar, with those long, snaky arms, from
which the various members of the family take
their generic name of Ophiura ; quantities of
beautiful rosy sun-stars, with twelve to fifteen
rough, bristly rays, symmetrically arranged ; of
all sizes, from great fellows as big as a plate, to
little ones not larger than a shilling ; and, more
rarely, their near relation, the purple sun-star,
different in colour and shape, and much smoother
in its texture, with only nine to eleven rays.
Eyed cribellas also come to the surface, rosy and
stiff, not looking the least like live creatures and
determined enemies of the oysters, whelks and

1 The late Dr. Carpenter.

134 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

scallops ; and next, the curious bird's-foot sea-
star, like a five-sided orange fritter, the thinnest
and flattest of starfish, flexible, like a piece of
leather, and composed of a whitish membrane,
edged with red, like the webbed foot of a duck,
uniting five red rays which extend to its angles
from a centre of the same colour.

I must merely roughly enumerate other objects
of interest, shells of many sorts and colours,
living and dead, from great clams to tiny cowries.
Red and transparent ascidians of various sizes and
shapes. Creeping things innumerable ; galateas
like tiny lobsters, and shrimps, prawns, and sand-
hoppers of varied hues. But the ducks are flying
in to feed, and I have had many warning hints
from the most sensible member of the party that
it is time we were turning home. The very last
haul of the dredge provides us with three more
specimens of the sea-rush, two of them so large
that they cannot go into any of our bottles, and
are triumphantly consigned to the large jar of sea
water which is destined to replenish the foot-tubs
which we have turned for the time into aquaria.
One is fourteen inches and a half long, and a
special tube has to be sent from London for its
transport ; but neither is perfect, and I plead in
vain for another turn, when perhaps the black
tulip, the four-leaved shamrock, may yet crown
our efforts.

More prudent counsels prevail, especially as my

OUT OF THE DEPTHS 135

own common sense admits that we shall be late
enough home as it is. For once we have a fair
breeze, and not too much of it, to take us out
of the loch ; but, although it carries us swiftly
along, the sun is setting over Jura before we turn
homewards in Crinan Bay. I will not endeavour
to rival Black, by describing the gorgeous colour-
ing of cloud and hill. All is subdued to a dull
purple before we reach our landing-place, but
although the day has been long for all, and tiring
for some, the whole party are longing for another
day when they may again explore the depths of
"the great and wide sea, wherein are things creep-
ing innumerable, both small and great beasts."

CHAPTER VIII
WESTERN WATERS

Time, four in the afternoon ; and the " shower
peculiar to the country " has been going on since
morning with more than usual persistency. Every
indentation in the hillside, every gutter in the
road, the very foot-paths themselves, are tem-
porarily transformed into rivulets, swelling the
burns into turbid torrents which are pouring their
tribute into the river, which in its turn has begun
to " wax," a fact apparent to the initiated eye
from the grass, sticks, and leaves which are float-
ing on its surface towards the bay. It is a day
which would drive a Frenchman to suicide, but it
does not seem to make much impression upon the
stolid farmer who has already turned his hay four
times, and will certainly have to do so at least
once more before carrying it, but who bears his
misfortunes with a resignation engendered by
custom ; or upon the old wife trudging slowly
along the road with her petticoats rather high-
kilted, and a huge umbrella over her head, and
who gives vent as she passes me to the undeni-
able and expressive monosyllable " Saft."

136

WESTERN WATERS 137

My expression is different from that of the
farmer or the old crone : it is not one of resig-
nation or stolidity, but of unmistakable elation,
which would seem unaccountable to the ordinary
observer of the leaden sky, the sodden landscape,
and the persistent downpour. But a fisherman
would have no difficulty in risking a guess at
the correct explanation. He would recognise a
brother of the angle, and would rightly conjecture
that my thoughts were of the morrow ; that my
heart was swelling with the hope that springs
eternal in the fisherman's breast, and that I was
already settling provisionally where and when I
should begin the next day.

I was born an angler, and from the first day
that I was big enough to handle a rod have
pursued, with varied success but unwavering
perseverance, every kind of fish from the stickle-
back to the salmon. My father still chuckles
over the recollection of my first big trout, a
splendid fellow of some three-quarters of a pound,
who took my worm when I was fishing for roach
in a little pond some quarter of a mile from the
house. Hearing unearthly shrieks, he rushed up
the hill on the wings of terror, scarcely hoping to
be in time to save me from a watery grave, and
found me executing a war-dance and war-whoops
of victory over my captive — much to his wrath
at the time, but to his amusement since. As
the twig is bent, the tree is inclined ; and I

138 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

can still excite myself over any unwonted cap-
ture, although, perhaps, I do not make quite
so much noise over it as when I was nine
years old.

There are pages in my memory which still
enshrine my greatest success, as — the big pike
I caught out of a coracle in a Kentish pond,
which towed my little bark against the wind ;
my first salmon caught in Norway in 1862 ; my
first twenty-pounder from the Tay ; and last, not
least, another twenty-pound fish which I landed
by myself with a trout rod and small fly, in the
little Argyleshire stream I am about to describe,
where such monsters are rare indeed. There are
few kinds of British field-sports to which I am
altogether a stranger ; but, although each has
its attraction, I still keep my warmest devotion
for my first love.

There is no kind of sport in which one is so
entirely independent of extraneous aid ; there is
doubtless a romance and an excitement about
the pursuit of the noblest of Scotch beasts of
chase, the red deer, in the solitude of the forest ;
but there is the decided drawback that you are
usually handed over to the tender mercies of
a stalker, whose commands you are implicitly
bound to obey, and who may or may not con-
descend to give you a reason for them ; and
there is also the necessity for a tail of gillies
and ponies. So grouse-shooting requires keepers,

WESTERN WATERS 139

dogs, and ponies ; and covert-shooting, and even
partridge-shooting under modern conditions, need
assistants and companions to be successfully
carried out. It is only in France, if anywhere,
that —

" Shouldering your rifle, and winding your horn,
You chase the pink partridge that chirps in the corn."

But the fishing to which I am now looking
forward may be, and will be, done by myself
only ; and it is this which makes me love the
little Add more than more famous and romantic
rivers where fish run much larger, but where
gillies, and probably boats as well, are absolutely
necessary. I dislike the sensation of being
watched ; I hate well-meant advice as to flies
and places ; and I abhor the ejaculation " There
he is ! " or words to a like effect, which no gillie
can restrain when a fish rises, and which pro-
duce the involuntary and premature motion of
the wrist or arm which has saved the life of
many a gallant salmon and trout.

Next morning the sky is clear, and half a
gale of wind is blowing. There are a few
ominous-looking clouds on the hills, which
indicate that there will be " some showers " in
the course of the day, which may be inter-
preted to mean heavy plumps of rain, lasting
about three-quarters of an hour each, which
defy an umbrella or an ordinary overcoat, and

140 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

would easily reduce a Parisian or a Londoner
to the condition of damp blotting-paper ; but
the probability is not in the least alarming to a
Highland fisherman. With long wading-stock-
ings, and a thick mackintosh, I care as little
for the prospect of rain as an ironclad for old-
fashioned ordnance, or a knight in mail for
the pikes and arrows of an ill-armed peasantry.
A glance through my glass from the window
at the river, about three miles off, shows me
that the water, although high, is not too much
so for fishing purposes ; it is two feet below the
bank, at a spot below a white gate, which is
my regular mark from the house, and a very
short time sees me off in a dog-cart, suitably
clothed and equipped, bound for the upper part
of the river, the most likely place for a fish
when the water is high. A waterproof in a
case is slung over one shoulder, and a bag with
two divisions over the other : one partition, of
india-rubber, contains my lunch, knife, flask, reel,
and tin box of flies and casts, and a gaff to
screw into the landing handle ; the other, of
canvas, is intended, and, I hope, destined, to
hold fish before the day is out. A folding tele-
scope landing-net hangs from the strap of the
bag, and a fourteen-feet three-jointed double-
handed trout rod completes an equipment
which, assuredly, would not do for the Spey
or Tay. Off I drive, my hopes rising higher

WESTERN WATERS 141

and higher as I get nearer and nearer to the
water-side.

Hood's immortal footman, after his ascent of
Mont Blanc, is anxious to describe the glacier,
which he does as follows : " Arter sliping and
sliding for 'ours, we come to the fust principle
glazier. To give a correct noshun, let any won
suppose a man in fustions, with a fraim and
glass and puttey, and a dimond pensel, and it's
quit the revers of that ! " In like manner I
must ask any one to disabuse himself of all pre-
conceived notions of a salmon river, whether
derived from books or experience, in order that
he may understand the one I am about to visit.
Imagine a noble stream, now pouring down in
cataracts, now breaking white in rapids, and now
rushing black, deep, and oily around boulders
at the foot of a fall — and it is quite the reverse
of that. At the upper part of its short course
near its source it is, indeed, wild and rapid
enough, but there it is little fished ; from thence
it gradually winds through an almost level plain ;
rock and gravel becoming rarer and rarer, the
stream deader and duller, and its bends more and
more circular as it approaches the sea. Looking
down upon its course from the hill, it is not diffi-
cult to see what geology and history confirm ; that
the great peat moss through which it flows must
at no very distant date, geologically speaking,
have formed a part of the sea itself, and that

142 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

the queer rocky hill, Dunadd, which stands out
like an island in the middle, was an actual
island in days gone by. There it was that
Pharaoh's daughter landed in pursuit of Moses,
and I have myself seen her footprints on the
rock at the summit, nearly two feet long and
broad in proportion — a beetle-crusher sufficiently
formidable to account for the secret and pre-
cipitate flight of the Israelitish law-giver. From
that point the river winds more and more through
the flat, until its course resembles a double S
near the point where it flows into the sea at
Crinan. All the lower part is tidal, and there
is a chance of getting a grilse, or a basket of
sea- trout near the mouth at " first of flood,"
even when it is hopeless to attempt to fish the
upper portion of the stream. It is necessary
for success that there should be a good curl on
the water, which can only be the case when
there is half a gale blowing, as the banks are
high above the stream and shelter it from the
wind.

But to-day I am bound for the "Irishman's
pool," and although the old horse rattles me
along at a good pace, he appears to be crawling,
so eager am I to get to work. As I pass the
bend of the river at Drimvaur, and cross the
bridge at Kilmichael, I can see that " she'll fish
fine "; and, as I sit down and put my rod to-
gether by the pool, I can see three or four fish

WESTERN WATERS 143

moving in a manner which increases my im-
patience. However, I am too old a hand to
neglect precautions in my haste, and my cast
is carefully soaked and straightened, and the
joints of my rod firmly tied together before I
select my flies, a small blue doctor for the tail-
fly, and two very small sea-trout flies, a claret
body and on orange, for droppers. Of course,
droppers would not do in many salmon rivers,
but in this one there are but few stones, and
what there are I know well ; and I have often
been surprised at the luck I have had with
them : the salmon taking the tiny flies when
they have refused the larger.

Above me, on the opposite bank,' is the
wood of Kirnan, called after the farm just
above, the birthplace of the poet Campbell,
and the scene of the " desolate garden " he
found on "revisiting Argyleshire." If his ghost
were to walk there now he would not find " one
rose of the wilderness left on its stalk, to show
where a garden had been," or anything at all
resembling the ideal landscape depicted by
Millais on the subject, but substantial farm-
buildings, with oats and potatoes growing up
to the very door. The pool is the shape of a
horse- shoe, or, rather, of a boomerang. The
river runs sharply over a shallow at the top,
and deepens under the opposite bank, running
briskly till it comes to the turn, where a back-

144 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

water is formed by a little burn running at an
angle. From thence there is a deep oily narrow
neck for about fifteen yards, with two rocks just
projecting at the top, and then it widens, till
it joins the shallow below by two channels with
a point of gravel between them. I wade in at
the top, for, although it is not a long cast, the
fish rise right under the hazel and oak-scrub
overhanging the opposite side, and the fly plays
best with a rather short line. At the second
cast there is a sharp tug, and a turn of the
reel ; but the water is too shallow just here
for a real " fish." Short shrift has my victim ;
a nice little silvery sea-trout, of about a pound
weight, with every disposition, if permitted, to
frolic [and splash about the pool and alarm his
betters. If I gave him an inch he would take
an ell ; but I do not, and he is lying gasping
on the bank before he has had time to be sur-
prised at the results of greediness or curiosity.
A little lower down the reflection of a white
stone shows just through the water, and there
I feel a conviction, amounting to certainty, that
something better will come, and I am not dis-
appointed. There is a curl and a glint of silver,
and at the next cast he is fast, and shaking
his head, with a slow deliberate movement,
from side to side, which denotes that he is
lightly hooked, and thinks that he may get rid
of his incumbrance without the trouble of a run

t

WESTERN WATERS 145

for it. While he is making up his mind I am
wading out, for I like to play my fish from
above them, and with a fairly long line, and
also prefer terra Jirma to slippery pebbles. I
am not without hopes that a little gentle per-
suasion may prevent him from dashing along
the other side and disturbing his " neighbours,"
and I am not disappointed, for in a few minutes
he is safe round the corner, well in hand,
taking decent and respectable runs, and I take
advantage of his pacific disposition to unscrew
the net and substitute the gaff; laying the
handle across the left arm ready for action. It
sounds awkward, but, with patience and choice
of the right moment, I have never experienced
the least difficulty in a task which would seem
to require a third hand. But the fish takes
advantage of his second wind, and the reel
whirs and the line sings, as he makes a deter-
mined rush for the bottom of the pool, flinging
himself out of the water twice in his course,
and showing the neat proportions of a hand-
some grilse of eight pounds weight, or there-
abouts. That rush was his last serious effort,
and, as his tail plays slowly on the surface
of the pool, I shift the rod to my left hand,
and stretch out my right, with the gaff in it,
and in another moment I have slackened the
line by letting out two or three turns, the rod
is on the ground, and the fish is on the bank,

K

146 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

receiving his quietus with a stone. Soon the
fly is cut out, and the sport is resumed.

I am not going to weary the reader with a
description of an entire day's fishing. Catching
one fish, on paper, is very like catching another,
although there is an infinite variety in reality.
Often have I spent the greater part of the
day by the Irishman's pool alone, small as it is,
and I have taken out of it as many as five
salmon, besides losing others. If one of my
captures has been disagreeably restive, I have
gone to the pool above for a short time, or I
have indulged in lunch or a pipe ; but it is
wonderful how soon salmon, or other fish, seem
to forget the misfortunes of their friends. " Call
that a pool ! " said a friend who was introduced
to the Irishman's pool for the first time, after
some experience of Tay and Tweed. " Why,
it is no bigger than a washing-basin." Yet
have I, horresco referens, seen more than a
hundred salmon taken out of it with one haul
of the net, when low water, and the need of
removing temptation from the poachers, com-
pelled the use of that atrocious implement. The
" Irishman " is not an easy pool to net by night,
but there are places where salmon get shut in,
in low water, where they can, and do occasion-
ally, fall victims to every description of imple-
ment. A sharp knife at the end of a stick,
giving a quick slash at their tails ; a hay-fork ;

WESTERN WATERS 147

a sheep net weighed down with a ploughshare
— to these and similar ignoble methods have
many gallant fish succumbed from time to time.
I have counted them, on one day, in a pool
from which there was no possibility of exit
except from above, and on the morrow have
mourned over their reduced numbers, and the
scars of some of the survivors. Still, poaching
is not very common, and the course of the river
is so open that it is easily detected.

I wonder whether I shall ever recover the
gaff I lost in the " Irishman " last year ? I had
hooked a fish, and was playing him in bright
sunshine, when suddenly, and without the
slightest warning, down swept a squall from
the hillside, accompanied by torrents of rain,
straight in my face, so violent that it was diffi-
cult to stand and hold my rod upright. Before
I had got my fish I was soaked to my wading-
stockings ; my mackintosh, alas ! lay on the
bank above me, and my fingers were numb,
and my rod sending rivulets of water down my
sleeves. I brought the fish within reach, and
gaffed him, but the slippery landing-handle
escaped from my grasp, and it bobbed up and
down three or four times in the deepest part of
the pool, and then sank to rise no more. The
fish, however, was still on, and gained nothing
except the sweets of revenge ; for he was out
on the bank in a minute more, receiving a

148 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

peculiarly vicious tap upon the nose as a punish-
ment for the theft of which he had been
guilty.

Have I ever caught two salmon at a time ?
Well, never; although I have once known a
fish to hook himself upon two flies, taking both
with a continuation of the same rise. Of course,
with sea or river trout such an adventure is
too common to be worth relating, but I have
only known one well-authenticated instance with
salmon, and then the gillie who gaffed and
landed the fish displayed a presence of mind
which showed the qualities of a great general.
The fish had followed one another kindly in
their rushes, and were both exhausted on the
surface ; but the crucial question was how to
get the one out who had taken the dropper
without a dead pull at the line, which would
break the cast or the hook between the pair
of artificial Siamese twins. As the fish ap-
proached the bank, the attendant gaffed it
with one hand, and, with an almost simultaneous
movement of the other, cut the dropper from
the cast with a sharp knife, and was rewarded
for his sagacity and luck by seeing the other
fish also succumb in a few moments more. If
such attendants were common, I might be
tempted to forswear my solitary habits.

The rustic who waits for the river to flow down
has passed into a proverb, but those who would

WESTERN WATERS 149

catch fish in the Add must not be ashamed of
emulating his example. The deep-cut sheep-
drains bring down the showers from the hills so
fast, that I have known it too high to fish one
day, and too low for much chance the next.
Many a time have 1 gone out in a downpour,
when it showed signs of clearing, and waited by
the bank, watching my miniature cairn of stones
put up just below high-water mark, and waiting
till the appearance of its top above the surface
proved that the water had begun to fall, and
goodly has sometimes been the reward I have
reaped for my faith and perseverance. As for
gales, they are disagreeable to face in an open
plain, but it is hardly possible for the wind to blow
too hard for success, and I have had excellent
sport when the waves were literally breaking on
the pools, and it was only possible to keep the fly
in the water by lowering the top of the rod till
it touched the surface. In all the lower part of
the river there is little or no rock, and the stream
gradually hollows out the banks until the sides
fall in, changing pools into shallows, and some-
times altering the whole course of the river. It
is no use here to rely upon tradition alone.
The fisherman must judge himself, to a great
extent, where it is worth while to cast a fly ; and
sometimes must be wary in approaching the edges
of the stream. I remember one day, when I was
playing a salmon, and it was sulking in a deep

150 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

hole just below me, I suddenly tumbled on the
top of him, with about a ton of earth, which had
given way under my weight. I managed to keep
hold of the rod, but by the time I had regained
my footing in the water, and had got the point
upright again, he was seventy yards above me,
and had taken advantage of the slack line to get
round a clod or boulder and make his escape. I
can confidently recommend a labourer's allotment,
and a man upon it, thrown into the water, as a
means of moving a sulking fish, but the remedy
is a little violent.

Much has been written by humanitarian senti-
mentalists on the cruelty of sport in general and
fishing in particular ; but I comfort myself in the
belief that the sense of feeling in fishes cannot
be acute. I have caught a sea-trout with a fly,
still bleeding from the fresh mark of a heron's
bill, which had transfixed it through the middle
of its body ; and it would be easy to multiply
instances of insensibility to pain. So, too, fish
seem to have extraordinary power of recovering
from the most severe injuries. I have taken a
salmon in the Tay with a scar on his side nearly
the size and depth of an ordinary tea-cup, quite
healed, and covered over with scales, evidently
the work of a seal in the estuary, and from the
growth of the fish it must have been done not
long before, at all events during the same year
and season.

WESTERN WATERS 151

But it is time to draw these rambling remarks
to a conclusion. If it were always

" Truth the poet sings,
That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier
things,"

then, indeed, to recall the river, and the northern
breezes, in a September session in London, with
the thermometer at 85°, and the echoes of voices
condemned by the long-suffering Speaker for
tedious iteration and irrelevancy still ringing in
one's ears, would be a penance too severe. But
for me, my thoughts recall the pleasures of hope
as well as those of memory. In fancy I am
already plodding along the well-known banks,
the whistle of the curlew and the plover sounding
in my ears. The snipe startle me as they rise
under my feet; the great herons flap lazily away
as I turn a corner just above them ; the mer-
ganser brings its numerous family up the stream
between the high banks into the very pool I am
fishing, and then the whole troop, suddenly
" spying strangers," dive about and separate, dis-
turbing my sport for the time, but giving me a
pleasure quite as great in watching them. The
grouse crow upon the oat-stubbles beside me, or
the old black-cocks dash over my head in flocks
of ten or fourteen. Perhaps there may be a
hen harrier beating the moss beside me, with
the regularity of a pointer, or a merlin hawking

152 AUTUMNS IN AKGYLESHIRE

some lark or pipit ; and whether the fish rise,
as they do sometimes, or whether they decline,
as they do even more often, I shall return
peaceful and contented to a well-earned dinner,
and a sleep unbroken by dreams of political
warfare.

CHARTER IX

NIL DESPERANDUM

What fisherman will ever forget the long drought
of the autumn of 1894? While yachtsmen,
ladies, farmers, labourers, and hotel-keepers were
blessing the unwonted and continuous sunshine
which prevailed from August 18 to October 25,
one universal cry of lamentation and anguish
poured from the lips of unfortunates by the banks
of every Highland stream, from Thurso to Tweed,
as they tapped the aneroids which declined to
fall, and watched in vain — morning and night —
for the clouds that never came. It was rumoured
— I do not know with what truth — that one
angler, who rented the best stretch of a cele-
brated river, at a total cost of little less than
£1000 for the season, only secured one small
grilse in over ten weeks ; and this was but an
exaggerated sample of the meagre nature of the
harvest reaped by hundreds. Yet it was at the
very close of this period, when springs were
dry which had never " given out " during the
memory of the oldest inhabitant, and when it
was almost impossible in the wettest district of

154 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

Ross-shire to find enough water to perform the
necessary ablutions after the death of a stag,
that the little river where I have fished for over
a quarter of a century gave me the best week's
sport I have ever experienced.

On October 13, the morning broke dull, misty,
and still, with a little drizzle falling. We had
intended to take a walk after wild grouse, but
the day was not inviting, and after waiting till
about eleven o'clock in the hope of its clearing,
I took my trout rod and strolled off to the river
— rather jeered at by my host ; but, although I
had not much hope of sport, I knew that I could
amuse myself for an hour or two watching the
stream, which I had not seen for more than a
year. My mackintosh I left at home — a piece
of rashness I should not have been guilty of
many years ago. A small bag contained my
lunch, reel and fly-book, and a net and gaff to
screw into my landing-handle, while its outer
partition seemed likely to be more than large
enough for anything I might have to bring
home. A light, but fairly stiff, split cane trout
rod completed my equipment, and three-quarters
of an hour later I was crossing the foot-bridge
over the river ; and as I looked upon and
through the glassy surface, and counted the
stones below, I felt that there was only one
place which I could try with any chance of
success. Most of the lower water is guarded

NIL DESPERANDUM 155

by deep banks, but there is a long horseshoe-
shaped pool, about a mile from the mouth, with
a low, shelving gravel bank on opposite sides at
each turn, some part of which is sure to catch
every breeze that blows. No time was to be
lost, as next day was full moon, and the tide
would be in by half-past one o'clock at the latest ;
so a very few more minutes saw me at the head
of the pool with my rod put together, and two
small sea-trout flies — a blue doctor and a nonde-
script with black body and silver twist on a
medium loch-trout cast.

There was only a very slight ripple on the
water, but at about the third cast something large
turned at the fly, and I caught a glimpse of a
silvery side as the fish returned to its fastness
at the bottom. A short pause, then another
cast, and the salmon rose again in the same
place — a third — and I was fast in the first fish
of the year, which dashed off across the pool
almost as much surprised as I was. I treated
him with becoming deference, waited till he
sulked a minute before I screwed the gaff
into the handle, and in a short time adminis-
tered the coup de grdce to a handsome grilse
weighing 7 lb. I will not enter into a detailed
account of the events of the next two hours, but
before the tide came in I had risen a number
of fish, and killed two more grilse of 6 lb.
each, besides an ugly, large, red kipper, weighing

156 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

9£ lb. By the time these were landed the tide
had begun to run strongly upwards, bringing
with it a nice lot of fresh sea-trout, of which
I secured six in the next twenty minutes.

Fishing was then over for the day, as it is
only at "first of flood" that even sea- trout rise
for a short time, while salmon stop rising as
soon as the gravel begins to be flooded off the
shoals. So I collected the fish and hid them
in a tuft of rushes, and after luncheon and a
pipe, walked home, calling at the keeper's on the
way to tell him to send for the fish, which I did
not care to carry back myself.

Tuesday found me again in the same place,
and although I could only fish for a short time
before the tide came in, I got two salmon weigh-
ing 18 lb. between them, and lost another I had
nearly landed, on a bit of wire fence which had
at some time been washed in, and which I could
plainly see in the deep part of the water bending
as the fish struggled before the final catastrophe.
The only other adventure of the day was that
a second fish took the tail fly after I had nearly
landed one on the dropper, and pulled his pre-
decessor off in his eager struggle to escape,
falling a victim himself to his philanthropic
efforts.

Three times during that eventful week did
I have two salmon on at a time, but I never
succeeded in landing both of them, though once,

NIL DESPERANDUM 157

at least, I was sufficiently near it to hope against
hope for success. The next day, in the same
water, fishing till four o'clock (the tide was now
growing more obliging), I beat all previous re-
cords. I had become alive to the fact that the
pools were swarming with fish, and that they
were as greedy as they were numerous : so I
suggested in the morning that a gillie should
come down to the pool after luncheon on the
chance of finding something to carry up. I
shall never forget Duncan's face of surprise when
he came down to where I was fishing, and found
the banks of the long pool fairly strewn with
fish. He walked off to a neighbouring cottage
for a sack, and a little later staggered to the road
bearing it on his back laden with ten fish, the
largest 17 h lb., the smallest 4| lb., and then
waited till he could deposit his burden in a
friendly peat cart homeward bound.

The next day the same pool yielded seven
salmon, and Friday was the only blank day I
had. Blue sky, white frost, brilliant sunshine,
and absolute calm were too much for even the
greedy and unsophisticated denizens of the pool,
and during a great part of the day I sat on the
bank, chatting to the keeper, who joined me
for a short time on his rounds, and told me that
he had counted over ninety fish in one pool
higher up, waiting to take advantage of any
change of sky or atmosphere. Even upon this

158 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

hopeless day many fish followed the fly, and
one or two were on for a few seconds ; but the
odds were too great, and when Duncan appeared
with his sack, all ready this time, he had to
carry it away empty. Fools the fish might be,
but they were not such fools as to attach them-
selves to gut so glaringly visible.

Such a day — so still and bright, with a pecu-
liar scorching feeling about the sun, is often a
" weather breeder," as they call it on the West
Coast, and I was not surprised the next morning
to see a cloudy sky, and tree tops bent by half
a gale of wind. The long spell of fine weather
was evidently coming to an end, but in the mean-
time I had one really first-rate fishing day before
me, and it was with high hopes that I started
for the river, although I hardly thought it
possible that I could beat my previous " record "
of ten salmon a day. Hitherto I had dispensed
with an attendant, and gaffed and landed all the
fish myself, but to-day I told Duncan to follow
as soon as our sandwiches were ready, and by
10.30 I had reached the river-side. This time I
did not cross the foot-bridge, as I had a fancy to
try the pool where the keeper had seen so many
fish the day before, and there was abundance of
wind — enough to affect even the most sheltered
casts. The event proved that I was right, as
my fly had hardly touched the water before I
was into a fish which I had some difficulty in

NIL DESPERANDUM 159

landing, as there was a lot of weed close to the
bank on my side of the river ; still, before the
gillie had arrived I had disposed of a nice little
grilse of 6 lb., and removed my dropper, fully
convinced that it was not a safe place in which
to continue to fish with two flies.

A remarkable experience followed. The whole
pool, as far as it was fishable, was not more than
fifty yards long, and about thirty-five yards wide
— yet I never left it till I went home at five
o'clock in the evening. So freely did the fish
rise, that I did not like to leave off even for
lunch, but ate my sandwiches standing up.
There were one or two spots which I never
passed without a rise, and nothing seemed to
frighten the fish, which absolutely declined to
take any warning by the struggles of their hooked
companions. They seemed quite mad for the fly,
and although I was broken once or twice by
my gillie gaffing the line in his excitement, and
some time was wasted by my experimenting vainly
with a somewhat larger fly which the fish followed
but would not touch, I had caught twelve fish,
the largest 9 lb. and the smallest 5h lb., before my
sport was over for the day. Even then, I believe,
I might have added to the number had I per-
severed, but it was beginning to get dark, and
I had fished the water twice over without a
taking rise, so I took my departure, and thus
ended this memorable week.

13th, four salmon
16th, two „
17th, ten „
18th, seven „
20th, twelve „

160 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

The totals and weights as recorded in my rough
diary ran as follows : —

Lbs.

7, 6, 9£, 6. Six trout.
H, 8|.
17|, 11, 9|, 7J, 7, 7, 7, 6, 6, 4|.

8, 10, 5J, 6, 6, 5, 8.
6,7£,7|, 5 J, 7f, 7, 9,6^,7,6,6,7^.

Total, thirty-five.

All these fish were caught with a 10^-feet single-
handed trout rod and small sea-trout flies of not
more than three varieties.

One of my sons suggested to me that I should
do well not to publish those experiences if I
wished to maintain my character for honesty and
truthfulness. Reverence is not the distinguishing
characteristic of the rising generation ; but as I
can call witnesses both to character and to the
facts, I am content to run the risk ; especially as
I think my experiences may be of use to others.
My success was, no doubt, largely due to circum-
stances wholly exceptional — and no one could
have anticipated or need expect to repeat it in
the same place under normal conditions. The
largest number of fish I ever caught in any one
year in the same river was forty-nine, the largest
number in a day seven, and those results were
obtained during three months' fishing with the
river frequently in perfect order ; so to catch
thirty-five in a week, in a very small length of
water, after a long drought, must be considered

NIL DESPERANDUM 161

phenomenal, and must be ascribed partly to the
enormous quantity of fish collected in the tidal
part of the stream, beyond which it was impos-
sible for them to run ; and partly to some climatic
influence which I can neither understand nor ex-
plain. I am an old fisherman with a tolerably
varied experience, and the more I fish the less
inclined I feel to lay down the law dogmatically
on the habits and caprices of that most capricious
of fish — the salmon. If I have sometimes met
with unexpected success, I have much more often
returned with an empty basket, when all condi-
tions seemed to point to a record day ; but fish-
ing would lose its greatest charm if it lost its
uncertainty — and " scent " itself is not more
uncertain.

The moral I draw is that, given the necessary
combination of fish and water, however low and
bright the latter may be, if you fish fine enough,
and use small enough flies, you need not despair.
I would also add my own belief that it is a com-
mon error of fishermen to use flies unnecessarily
large. With regard to rod and tackle, I am well
aware that there are not many rivers where it
would be safe and easy to catch salmon with a
small single-handed rod, yet where I was fishing
I believe that I exercised a wise discretion in my
choice of a short light rod, considering the day,
the water, and the period of the year. It was
quite easy to keep as much strain upon the fish

L

162 AUTUMNS IN AKGYLESHIKE

as my light tackle would safely bear; and the
longer your rod the more difficult it is to gaff
your own salmon. The pools were small and low,
and the fish hardly ever attempted to leave them ;
and as I said before, it was easy to follow them
along the banks, and unnecessary and inexpedient
to let them have a great deal of line out. Of
course it must also be remembered that the fish
were autumn fish — in fair condition for the time
of year ; but not to compare with spring salmon.
Another advantage of a light rod is that you can
strike quick and sharply ; and although I agree
with those who hold that it is often a mistake
to strike salmon in rough water, this rule does not
apply to lochs or still, sluggish streams where it
is absolutely essential that eye and hand should
be quick, and act together.

CHAPTER X

A DAY WITH THE GRILSE

It is one of the wettest mornings of this very
wet autumn of the year of grace 1890. The
keeper has reported in the gun-room, on being
asked whether it was any good to go out on the
hill, that " the dry land was over your boots,"
and that the birds would be quite unapproachable.
Still, the glass is rising at last, and although the
water has been too high to begin with yesterday
and the day before, and has committed on each
day the unpardonable sin of rising and flooding
us out when fishing, I determine to go again to
the river for two reasons : (1) the day is wholly
unsuitable for any other sport or amusement ;
(2) I know that there are fish in the river, and
this heavy flood, just as the nets are off at the
mouth, with a spring-tide at its highest, must
have brought in others. Besides, it has rained
so much that it surely cannot rain any more ;
the stock must be exhausted ; and lastly, if other
reasons are wanting, a true fisherman requires a
great deal to keep him at home. After all, the
rain that fell last night can have been nothing

163

164 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

but a mist, although it splashed round the house
like a shower-bath — or, at least, it must have
been less on the hills at the sources of the Add —
so the dog-cart is duly ordered to be at the door
at 10.30. My wife, after vainly expostulating,
suggests that I should put on a pair of shooting-
boots instead of waders, so that " if I should have
a gleam of sanity I can walk home. Surely, at
any rate, I will not take the child with me?" But,
the child, an embryo schoolboy of nine, and myself,
being of a different opinion, the majority of voices
carry the day ; and at the hour fixed for starting
we both mount the dog-cart in high glee, fully
persuaded that, although the rain is still falling,
it really is the clearing shower which has been
prophesied for the last six weeks and has arrived
at last.

Faith is rewarded this time. Before we have
got to the lodge the clouds are rising over Jura,
and very rapidly the whole glorious panorama
opens upon our view. As the mist disperses the
wind freshens, and the sun actually shows signs
of vitality after his long sulks. There go eight
ravens over our heads, winging their way from
the shores of Loch Awe to the distant islands.
They may croak away ; we have too firm a belief
in our luck to be turned from our purpose by their
dissonant voices ; besides, we are used to them —
it seldom happens that a day passes without our
seeing or hearing several. They may be trapped

A DAY WITH THE GRILSE 165

upon the mainland ; but there are plenty of rocky
islands seldom visited where they can breed in
peace. I like them better than the jackdaws,
which increase and multiply in the same places
and for the same reason. The one reminds me
of a mastiff; the other of a mischievous yapping
cur. I am tolerant of what keepers call vermin,
and would never willingly permit the slaughter
of a peregrine or an eagle, although I know they
take toll both in moor and forest; but jackdaws
and rats are my abhorrence, and any method of
destroying them, per fas or nefas, has my hearty
acquiescence and good- will. The eagles, alas !
seldom if ever pay us a visit ; but the peregrine
is often with us. Only three days ago, as I was
fishing the Irishman's pool, higher up the river,
I was startled by the cry of a curlew evidently
in distress ; and immediately afterwards the bird
itself settled on the stones not ten yards off, and,
as I had conjectured, the cause of its terror imme-
diately followed in the shape of a splendid hen
falcon which swooped close past my head, and,
seeing me, soared off with a startled flight, and
was soon lost to sight over the neighbouring hill.
It was ten minutes and more before the curlew
would leave my society, doubtless fearing that its
enemy was waiting for it not far off.

But the dog-cart has pulled up at Dunadd Bridge,
and it is time that I should get out and put my
rod together. As I look at the heavy stream

166 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

pouring over the rocks above, and through the
arches of the bridge, I mentally admit that there
is no great hurry about it. My regular marks
are covered, and the water is indubitably too
high ; but it is clear and falling. We can see
by the sticks and rubbish left on the bank that
it has been higher by three feet during the night,
and there is even now hope of a fish in the shal-
lows at the heads and tails of the deep pools ;
while later, if the day holds up, the water should
arrive at a height which will fish well. Why
should I despair? My little terrier Punch sets
me a lesson of perseverance by dashing off at
once after the same rabbit which he always
hunts at this place with as much apparent assur-
ance of success as if he had never failed before,
and in a minute is digging again at the same
old hole into which his enemy has frisked as
usual, with a saucy jerk of his tail, as if he en-
joyed the joke. Alfred, too, is evidently san-
guine, and eager that I should begin, as he
has already screwed the landing-net on to 'the
handle ; so I sit down, and take out the joints of
my rod, a light fourteen-feet greenheart double-
handed trout-rod, tie them carefully together, and
pass the line through the rings. Next I try
each joint of the casting -line, and select the
largest blue doctor I can find in my book for
a tail-fly, and a dropper of attractive appearance,
a black dog, rather larger than I usually fish

A DAY WITH THE GRILSE 167

with on this water. The fish here prefer a small
fly; but for the present, in this high flood, the
great point is to let them have something they
can see to attract their attention.

Poor discontented fishermen ! we are never
satisfied. One day we are sighing for more water,
the next we are grumbling because we have too
much. " Depend upon it," said the present Lord
Brampton (then only Mr. Hawkins, Q.C.), when
acting at the bar for two moneylenders in a
scrape, "your best chance is to tell the truth."
"That's what I tell my son," answered the eldest
of them ; " but I'm afraid he will tell too much
truth." Water, like truth, is an excellent thing
in moderation ; but whatever may be said of the
latter, you may certainly have too much of the
former. The provoking thing, too, is that you
may have too much one day and not enough on
the next. A short Highland river, not running
out of a loch, with every hill around it drained
with deep sheep - drains, rises and falls almost
as fast as a speculative Stock Exchange security.
However, there is nothing for it but to begin,
and I deposit my spare joints and my bag almost
opposite a rock just showing through the break-
ing water, and begin to fish the lowest of the
three stretches which make up the long pool of
Dunadd.

This is a monotonous pool to fish ; but too
prolific to be neglected. It is rather difficult

168 AUTUMNS IN AKGYLESHIKE

to manage with a small rod, because the stream
is for the most part sluggish, and requires a
strong wind to make it properly fishable, which,
when it touches the water properly, always blows
up stream. Therefore, to make the fly hang
right, it is not sufficient to cast straight across.
You should throw a long line across and down
stream, and work the fly with the point of the
rod close to the water; and this must be done
often, as the line in such a position will not
work long at a time. It is tiresome and mono-
tonous at the best of times, because one part of
it is so like another; but to-day, when it is too
high, it is doubly tedious, because I have not
that faith in the result which encourages me
to persevere, and I only flog on mechanically,
in order to give plenty of time for the higher
pools to run down. This occupies an hour and
a half, during which time nothing makes an
offer at the fly except a small parr, which en-
deavours to hang itself on a hook nearly as big
as itself; so it is with a sigh of relief that I
shoulder my bag, and with my young companion
make my way through a small swampy hazel-
wood to the next pool up the river, which is
known as "Boy's" pool, in allusion, I believe,
to some legendary boy, who is supposed to have
met his death there.

This is a pool which, although it always holds
fish, is not usually very productive. The stream

• ///■;//■//, /■/■/ -ft

A DAY WITH THE GRILSE 169

runs strong at the neck, but the pool imme-
diately after broadens into a round hole, very
deep for the most part, out of which two streams
run round a sort of gravelly island. This double
exit causes a kind of eddy and backwater, and
except at the very neck, it is impossible to keep
the line straight and make the fly hang naturally.
However, I again deposit my baggage, and at
the second cast a heavy boil breaks the sur-
face of the water, the line tightens and the reel
whirs. Hurrah ! I am into my first fish.

I shout to Alfred, who is slowly making his
way up the bank, slightly bored at the proceed-
ings so far ; and the whole scene changes in an
instant. Up he runs, with excitement and delight
depicted on his face, just as the salmon makes a
furious rush up stream, and then a jump which
nearly lands him on the opposite bank. Then
comes a lull while the fish sulks for a minute in
the deep water in the centre of the pool, and I
can assure my little attendant, who is nervously
and excitedly screwing the landing-net off and
the gaff on, that he has plenty of time. He has
been out with me before ; but it was only yester-
day that he was first allowed to use the gaff, and
very well he did it, landing a seven-pound fish
at the first attempt. Off goes the salmon again,
and after another two turns of the reel, shows
himself on the surface — a good fish for this water.
I generally minimise the size of my fish, but I

170 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

calculate his weight at between eight and nine
pounds. As he shows, Alfred dashes to the side
and madly dances after him in his rushes, heed-
less of my shouts that, if he will keep quiet, I
will bring the salmon up to him ; but it is not
to be this time. The fish dashes out of the pool
into the stream below, and, without the least
preliminary warning, the rod straightens. The
hold has given way! A breathless gasp from
each of us, and the tears almost rise into my
small boy's eyes ; but when he sees the disgust
expressed upon my countenance — which, in self-
defence, I must assert to be more for his sake
than my own — he remembers his first duty as
consoler, and, fumbling in his pocket for some
propitiatory offering, says, " Never mind, father ;
take a nut."

Solvuntur risu tabulce. The consolation has
come, although perhaps it is not the half-ripe
nut that has done it ; and, hoping for better
luck next time, we move on to the Stance pool,
where the stream sweeps round a bend of the
river near the road, ending in a wide stretch,
with deep water under the opposite bank. Half-
way down a small sea-trout takes the dropper
and speedily finds his way into the landing-net ;
and just a few yards before the end, there is
another swirl in the water, and the line is tight
and the reel again in motion. But it is only for
a few seconds. There is something in the feel

A DAY WITH THE GRILSE 171

of the "hold" that tells me instinctively that
the fish is but lightly hooked, and I shake my
head at the little gillie, who is already beginning
to prepare for action, just before the line comes
back slack once more — to my disappointment,
but not this time to my surprise. It is rather
annoying to have had two fish on and lost them
both ; but I am not disheartened, as the water
is improving every minute, and every one that
has risen has taken hold after a fashion. We
shall doubtless do better presently.

A walk of a couple of hundred yards brings
us to an anonymous pool at the next bend, which
is quite as well worthy of attention as many that
have high-sounding names. This is a river in
which it will not do to rely on tradition and
reputation. The banks are undermined and fall
in, and tons of gravel are washed down by every
spate, so that what is a deep pool one year may
become a mere run or shallow the next ; there-
fore, only those places that have some perma-
nent natural features, such as a bridge or a rock,
or those that have been the scene of some acci-
dent or event, acquire and retain the honour
of a name. I can remember catching fish in
this pool twenty years ago, and then until last
year it was hardly worth fishing ; but the opposite
side was faced with stone in 1888 to prevent
further damage to the bank and the adjoining
fields, and it has since become a very good

172 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

place for fish, with a stream at the top ending
in a deep round pool at the bottom. There is
an iron railing and a ditch to get over to take
me to the gravelly bank at the top, and, as it is
lunch-time, I choose a sheltered spot under the
bank at the bottom, where I leave my boy to
unpack and begin his meal, while I go up and
fish the stream over for the first time ; but he
has not got beyond the stage of taking out the
paper parcels and untying the strings when
there is another whir of the reel, and a nice
little fish is dashing down stream attached (firmly,
I hope, this time) to the tail-fly, which bears
the seductive name of " the Captain." Cake,
egg-sandwiches, and cold grouse are flung down
at the first sound of the reel, and Alfred comes
tearing up with Punch at his heels. The fish
runs well, and is soon sufficiently exhausted to
bring up to the gaff; but this time the land-
ing is the most serious matter of difficulty. I
have said that my boy gaffed his first salmon
yesterday, and did it well ; but then he had not
been worked into a state of excitement by seeing
two fish lost. His first attempt is too slow,
and with the second he gaffs the casting-line,
when if the fish had not been thoroughly ex-
hausted, he would have bidden us farewell ; but
there is luck in odd numbers, and at the third
try the point goes home, and a nice little grilse
is deposited on the stones. He is soon weighed

A DAY WITH THE GRILSE 173

and put into the bag. He is only five pounds ;
but a fish is a fish, and we need no longer fear
going home with " a blank day."

Lunch is soon over, and, when two more flies
have been tried on the same stream without
another offer, we begin to retrace our steps
down stream. Something, either a large trout
or a small " fish," moved at the fly, just below
the place where we had luncheon, and again after
a rest and a change of fly ; but, whatever he was,
he did not mean business, and equally resisted
the attractions of a claret-body, a small Jock
Scott, and a Captain. However, I got two small
trout before I am back to the Stance pool,
and give them but a short shrift, as it will be
about as much as I can do to finish my water
by the time the dog-cart is ordered to meet us
at the bridge.

Here fortune is again favourable, for a very
pretty fish of a little over six pounds takes
the fly under water in the deepest part, plays
kindly, and comes to the gaff soon. The only
difficulty this time is caused by the ill-directed
zeal of my terrier Punch, who appears to have
given up rabbit-hunting for the moment, and,
erroneously thinking that he can help me, dashes
at the fish every time I bring him near the gaff,
sending him flying to the other side of the pool,
and sadly disconcerting my attendant, who, how-
ever, does his duty nobly, and in spite of the

174 AUTUMNS IN AKGYLESHIKE

disturbing element, has the salmon out on the
bank the first time he gets a fair chance, and
deposits him in the bag beside his predecessor,
looking like a bar of silver — so bright that he
cannot have left the sea many hours.

Another fish, about the same size, rises, and
falls to rise no more, in the very next stream,
just where the bank has been made up with some
piles, and then the luck changes again. The
height of the water is still improving, the breeze
keeps up well, and the sky is all a fisherman
could desire ; but — the fish have left off rising.
I change my flies half-a-dozen times, trying
varieties of size and colour ; but neither the Boy's
pool nor the stream below, nor any part of the
long pool by Dunadd, produces a single rise ;
and when I see the dog-cart turning the corner
towards the bridge, I feel no inclination to keep
the rod on the lower water waiting, but take it
down at once; and soon we are "all on board,"
and I am lighting a meditative pipe, my little boy
volubly recounting to the groom the adventures
of the day, while Punch, curled up upon the bag
under the seat, dreams of the rabbits he could
not catch, and of the well-earned meal which
awaits him on his return.

So ends an enjoyable day ; and if the more
fortunate captors of monsters in Canada, Norway,
the Tay, the Tweed, laugh at my poor little spoils,
I can at least remind them that I am able to use

A DAY WITH THE GRILSE 175

the lightest of tackle, and can do without boat,
gillie, and many of the other accessories indis-
pensable on their grand rivers. I have myself
been among the twenty-pounders, and can con-
scientiously say that with treble gut and an
eighteen-feet rod I have found them just as easy
to catch as their smaller relations in the Add.

CHAPTER XI
LOCH-NA-LAKICH

Hardly a ripple ruffles the surface of beautiful
Loch Sween, and the sun shines brilliantly from
a blue unclouded sky. What breeze there is
comes fitfully from the north-east, and a light
haze blots out the familiar view of the Pap of
Jura. The gulls float lazily round ; one or two
terns drop screaming down upon the small fry,
and everything looks delightful except to the
eye of a fisherman. But it is not a day for one
to stop at home who has only just arrived from
London on a short holiday, and the only question
for decision is to which of the hill lochs I shall
turn my steps. Loch Choilliber holds the largest
trout, but it is proverbial that the best chance
of sport in its deep waters is "a regular down-
right beast of a day," and it is so sheltered by
wood and brae that it requires half a gale to
produce a good curl upon its bays and inlets.
So the pounders may have a rest to-day, and I
determine to content myself with the nearer
and more exposed waters of Loch-na-Larich.
If I get no sport there a short half-hour's stroll

176

LOCH-NA-LARICH 177

will bring me home again ; but although I
advance that fact as one of the reasons for my
choice, my host laughingly shakes his head,
for he knows that it is not at all likely that
I shall be back much before dinner-time. How-
ever, he wishes me good luck, and I am soon
strolling through the wood and up the brae,
accompanied by my black spaniel Ben, and by
a lad carrying my luncheon, rod, and impedi-
menta. My mackintosh for once I determine to
leave at home.

Travellers who have been in the Holy Land
describe the Sea of Galilee as being of the shape
of a harp, and the same simile will give a good
idea of the little mountain tarn which breaks
upon my view in a cup of the hills below Cruach
Lussa. There is no bloom yet upon the heather
which clothes the moors around it, as it is early
June, but the young bracken is shooting up
through last year's withered fronds ; and the
small birch trees which fringe the opposite side
of the little bay at the near end are brilliant
with their early green. Great kingcups shine
like stars among the stones at the side, and the
sandpipers busily flit from rock to rock, while the
air is musical with their voices, and the louder
bubbling breeding-season note of the curlew
which hovers over the opposite brae. Two or
three mallards fly away as we approach, and a
matronly duck leads a numerous brood of some

M

178 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

eleven tiny balls of down into the reeds at the
far end for shelter. The boat is moored to a
small pier below me, padlocked to a chain and
rope, and I sit down and put my rod together,
while my attendant unfastens the padlock and
prepares to get all ready for a start.

And now occurs the first misfortune of the
day. The gillie has duly unfastened the pad-
lock, but the chain is broken, and at the first
pull it comes away in his hands, leaving the
boat still floating out of reach. I ask him what
is to be done, and he replies that he must wade
for it; and after I have vainly endeavoured to
move it by throwing my light line across it, we
determine that wading is the only plan likely to
succeed. He is for going in at once, accoutred
as he is, but I impress upon him that there is
no hurry, and he so far indulges my weakness
as to consent to take off his shoes and stockings.
This does not, however, prevent his getting wet,
for the water is not merely well over his knicker-
bockers, but nearly up to his shoulders, before
he is able to reach the boat with a long stick.
While he is baling, I see a rise a little to the
left, just within reach of the shore, and as I
drop my fly with a longish line into the circle,
a little fellow rises boldly and takes the dropper,
although there is no ripple on the water. I
haul him out, pulling and struggling manfully
considering his size, and, as I land him, find

LOCH-NA-LARICH 179

that there is a second one attached to the tail
fly, and that I have caught two with my first
cast They are not so long as my hand, but I
do not put them back again, for there are really
too many fish in the loch, and it would be a
good thing to reduce the stock. Besides, they
are excellent for breakfast, and, if I am too par-
ticular about size, it is quite probable that there
may not be enough for a fry. The ordinary run
of fish in this loch is about three to the pound,
and one is lucky if one gets one of over a pound
in a good day's fishing.

And now commences the familiar but unsatis-
factory process of hunting the breeze. We gaze
round the loch, and make up our minds that the
best chance will be in the little bay under the
birches, where there appears to be a tiny ripple.
As soon as we arrive there, it has entirely dis-
appeared, and seems to have turned its attention
to the very spot we have just left. It is not
hard work either for rower or fisherman, and
the former just holds the boat within reach of
shore, while I keep dropping my three flies as
lightly as possible a few yards from the rocks,
and am occasionally rewarded with a shy rise, and
get a few fish, some of them of quite a decent
size. What determined fighters they are ! They
bend my light rod, and even run out a little
line. If the lazy South-Country giants of the Test
or Mimram had half their energy and strength,

180 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

few indeed in those weedy streams would suc-
cumb to the tiny hooks and gossamer gut neces-
sary for effecting their capture at any time but
the mayfly season. I see a few alders on the
water, and am most successful with an imitation
of that fly, dressed pretty large and sunk rather
deep. In spite of the weather, I nearly always
get an offer from any fish I see rise within reach
and manage to put my fly over ; but although I
strike very quickly, I do not succeed in touching
one in three, as they see too much, and turn
before they actually touch the fly. One little
fish of about a quarter of a pound is hooked
foul, near the ventral fin, and makes for the
weeds near the bottom so stubbornly that, until
I see where he is hooked, I try to persuade
myself that I have at last got hold of a monster
of the deep. The most productive spot is the
end near the reeds, where a line of waterlily
leaves are just showing. There I get one fish
of nearly three-quarters of a pound, beautifully
shaped and marked, which really makes a de-
termined struggle for liberty, actually reaching
the weeds and for a moment attaching the
dropper to one of them, which, fortunately, is
not sufficiently firm to break the casting-line.

And now for a few moments a change comes
over the scene. Hitherto there has been nothing
but the lightest possible ripple, and often not
even that ; but now a sudden blast beats down

LOCH-NA-LARICH 181

from the hills, and the light boat is flying down
the loch almost too rapidly for fishing, and, in
spite of the utmost exertions of the man at the
oars, the boat is down over the flies almost as
soon as they touch the water. Two or three
fish move at the fly in the course of the drift,
but none of them are hooked, as it is really
impossible to keep the line properly straight
and strike in a workmanlike manner. It is but
an easterly squall, and falls as rapidly as it rises ;
and, when a toiling and laborious pull up-wind
has got us nearly back to the far end of the
loch, all is calm once more, and rock, hill, and
reed are reflected double in the glassy surface.

The basket at the end of the day contains
only thirteen trout, and although there are one
or two big ones, the average weight of the whole
cannot be more than a quarter of a pound — a
bad day both in number and size. At this time
of the year I ought to be sure of at least a
couple of dozen in an afternoon of about three
to the pound. I have not changed my flies
much, as the rising fish have seemed contented
with what was offered them — a teal and green, a
zulu and an alder. My cast was a very fine one,
and when for a short time I tried burn -trout
flies of the smallest size on drawn gut, I did
not meet with sufficient success to encourage
me to persist in the experiment. I also conde-
scended to a minnow for a short time while I

182 AUTUMNS IN AKGYLESHIRE

enjoyed my after-luncheon pipe, but not a touch
rewarded the poaching expedient. Altogether the
pleasure of the day consisted rather in the deli-
cious air, the beautiful landscape, and the life
and music around me, than in the moderate sport
enjoyed. All day the birds have been busy and
noisy, and I have noted fourteen varieties — her-
ring-gull, kittiwake, heron, curlew, lapwing, sand-
piper, duck, coot, moorhen, blackcock, grouse,
rook, jackdaw, and cuckoo, without counting the
smaller birds, such as swallows, martins, pipits,
and warbler, the latter of which I find it difficult
to identify with certainty at any distance.

I do not, of course, record the above day's sport
as a typical or satisfactory sample of the plea-
sures of loch-fishing. I have had many days in
various spots where the basket has been heavy
at the end of the day, and fish up to two
pounds, with an occasional monster even larger,
have rewarded my exertions. But just as mar-
malade has been described as "an excellent
substitute for butter at breakfast," so to my mind
fishing in a loch from a boat is only a substi-
tute for the real thing, and except for a change
occasionally, I would rather have indifferent sport
in a river or burn than fish the finest loch in the
Highlands. I am far from saying that there is
no skill in loch-fishing, or that knowledge of
the locality, depth of water, and favourite haunts
of big fish is not highly advantageous ; but a few

LOCH-NA-LARICH 183

general rules, such as to prefer places where the
water is only moderately deep, and be particularly
attentive round sunken rocks, under overhanging
boughs, near islands, or by patches of weeds,
waterlilies, or reeds, will generally enable a
stranger to a loch to make a good show at the
end of the day if he understands the ordinary
craft of the angler. Casting is never very diffi-
cult, as you drift along with the wind, and the
temptation to a good fisherman to throw an un-
necessarily long line is a stumbling-block and
snare, except on the rare occasions when it
enables him to cast over some rather distant
fish he may have seen rise. To my mind, the
most difficult thing in loch -fishing is to avoid
entangling your line with that of some less
expert brother angler who is casting from the
same boat, and is erratic in his notions of time.
A quick hand at the strike and unremitting
observation and patience are of course essential
for success. More skill is required in fishing
from the shore or wading when a loch is thickly
wooded, or the banks are approachable only
from a few spots ; but there are very few Scotch
lochs where wading or bank-fishing give satisfac-
tory results. Usually either the water deepens too
rapidly, or reed beds or marshy deposit prevent
your approaching the most likely spots.

This surely cannot be compared for sport to a
ramble along some beautiful Highland stream,

184 AUTUMNS IN AKGYLESHIRE

where the practised eye takes in the possibilities
of every part of each successive reach or rim.
" Chuck-and-chance-it fishing"! is the carping
comment of the accomplished dry-fly trout-stalker
of the south, to whose superior skill and mastery
of the craft I bow with an awe and admiration
entirely true and unfeigned. But although I may
not have marked the three - pounder sucking
down olive duns among the cresses, or seen the
feeding fish lying near the surface, I must demur
to the cynical description of my proceedings.
Chuck I do, and chance it I must, to a certain
extent ; but there is all the difference in the world
between the light and careless manner in which
I rapidly move along some pebbly shallow or
glassy reach, and the loving care with which
I dwell upon the interstices among the rocks,
the rippling, moderately strong runs, and other
likely spots where instinct and experience tell
me that trout are sure to rise. For sport and
real fishing give me the river-bank, a clear stage,
and no human companion, except perhaps at the
midday lunch, until the close of the day.

But I am speaking of sport, and as a fisher-
man only. If I had not fished in lochs, I should
have missed some of the most lovely scenes and
enjoyable days I have ever spent. My mind
recalls pictures of Loch Awe in the late spring,
when the large globe ranunculus is in flower, of
island, castle, rock, and wood, and Ben Cruachan

LOCH-NA-LARICH 185

towering overhead ; of many a smaller tarn
sparkling like a jewel among the hills ; of the
ospreys screaming over Loch Luichart, and of
beautiful Colonsay with its three long lochs run-
ning straight in from the Atlantic, and Loch
Sgoltaire among the hills higher up, with its
ruined castle and lovely view of Mull through
the cleft in the hills by the Cailleach. Perhaps
it may be said that I might have seen all these
lochs without fishing them. True enough, O
sapient critic ; but self-examination compels me
to confess that it is most improbable that I
should have done so.

CHAPTER XII

GROUSE

Why is it that there is something in the word
" grouse " which raises a thrill in the heart of every
sportsman, and of a good many others with little
claim to the title? It is certainly not any par-
ticular merit the grouse has as a test of the high
qualities of the marksman, for I doubt whether
any bird — even the hedgerow pheasant beloved by
our ancestors — is quite so easy to shoot as a grouse
rising to dogs after a steady point on the Twelfth
of August. But your grouse has the advantage
of the first start. The guns are brought out of
" dock," whether they have been resting on the
shelves of a dry cupboard or warehoused with a
competent and trustworthy gunmaker — for my
part I prefer to shift the responsibility for their
condition to another, now that it can be so readily
done at a small cost — and leaving the counting-
house, the Courts, or the House of Commons, you
find yourself, after a night in the train — which
every year approximates more nearly to the com-
forts of an hotel — either on board a West Coast
steamer enjoying the sea-breezes and the fairyland

186

GROUSE 187

panorama of the Hebrides, or delivered at your
destination, even in Inverness or Sutherland, at a
time which would have seemed fabulous to our
not very remote progenitors. I remember the
late Laird of Poltalloch, who died in 1893, telling
me how his father used to ride the whole way
from London, purchasing his horse and having
his saddle made before starting ; and how, having
been asked to patronise a young man just start-
ing in business, he gave the first order to the
founder of a famous firm still in the front rank
of London saddlers and harness-makers. The jour-
ney then took three weeks. Now you may go
to the theatre in London one evening, and arrive
at Poltalloch in time for luncheon on the next
day!

Happy is the man who is not obliged to defer
his holiday till the last moment before the Twelfth,
but can devote a few days to the burn and loch
trout, to potting those troublesome rabbits with
a pea-rifle, and trying the young pointers and
setters over a few of the neighbouring moors.
He is not so likely as some to find upon the day
his native heath very different from his native
flagstones, and to collapse utterly at noon like
Mr. Briggs. However, for many it is good fortune
enough to be able to begin a holiday on the eve
of the happy day, and members of Parliament
have usually only been able to obtain even that
privilege either by neglect of their duties or the

188 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

useful institution of a "pair." Still, the flesh is
weak, and these are the confessions of one who,
while he held a seat in the House, generally con-
trived to have his feet upon the heather when the
blissful Twelfth came round.

Those happy Twelfths ! My memory carries me
back over thirty years, every autumn of which has
been spent in the North. There are few parts of
Scotland, from Sutherland to the Border, which
have not echoed to the report of my gun. What
varieties of scene, what differences of climate,
flit across the mind's eye at the thought of the
first day of the season ; tropical heat, arctic cold,
light breezes, and shifting clouds ; thunder and
lightning and torrents of rain ; the round rolling
hills of Ross-shire ; the Perthshire tablelands, so
easy to walk after the hard climb to get to
them ; the broken mountains of Argyle, with
their succession of small hills and valleys and
constantly recurring visions of blue sea and
distant islands ; the down-like Border country,
intersected by Esk, Teviot, and Dryfe, and rich
with a thousand memories of Christopher North
and Sir Walter. Each of these spots has a
charm of its own ; for Caledonia, like another
Queen —

" Governs men by change, and so she sways all moods."

As the blissful date draws round, I feel at peace
with all mankind, and disinclined to take a

GROUSE 189

controversial line. Let others exalt the varied
charms of driving, shooting over dogs, walking in
line, or stalking the old cocks round the hillocks
— each method has its uses, each its delights ;
but let us at least tolerate the idiosyncrasies of
others. When I hear a man say that he sees no
sport in driving, I find out, in nine cases out of
ten, that he is either an indifferent shot or has
had little or no experience of what he is denounc-
ing. But I plead for a reciprocal toleration from
the driving expert who "fails to see any fun in
knocking down slow-flying birds getting up under
your feet." A good shot finds plenty of scope
for his powers in selecting the right birds, and
bringing them down neatly and well ; and if
the survival of the fittest is to extinguish every
breed of sporting dog except the retriever, I
hope it will not be in my day. It is delightful
to see a pair of well-trained setters or pointers
quartering the ground ; and if you know and
love your dogs, how often their faults and
peculiarities rather endear them to you than
otherwise !

" He is all fault who has no fault at all," and
when Tim or Shuna chases that rabbit which
jumps up under his nose, comes back sheepishly
for the licking he knows he deserves, exhibits
boundless and exuberant joy when he finds
how easily he has got off, and repeats the same
performance almost before the whip has been

190 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

pocketed, it is impossible not to laugh, especially
if you are not personally responsible for the train-
ing of the delinquent. Of one thing I am per-
fectly convinced — it is not the number of birds
killed which constitutes the charm of shooting.
My bag has varied from a hundred brace and over
to my gun, killed more than once in Forfarshire in
the record year 1872, to a few brace shared with
a couple of schoolboys ; yet it is hard to say which
days I have enjoyed most. Of course there are
some days and years especially noteworthy. In
1872 the first Lord Cairns, his brother-in-law,
Mr. McNeil, dear Edward Ross, the Queen's Prize-
man— now also, alas ! no more — and myself got
over 1500 brace over dogs in ten days; and on
August 25, the second time over the ground, I
got by myself 75£ brace of grouse and a few snipe
and hares ; and for contrast, I remember the
stormy day when Lord Lauderdale was killed by
lightning on the moor, when the wet and cold
was so severe in Argyleshire that one of our
pointers actually died on the hill then and there
from the effect of cold and exposure.

Let the reader now accompany me for a short
time to the country I know and love best — dear
Argyleshire, where forty brace over dogs is, and
always has been, a great day ; but which, in spite
of all drawbacks of climate, is, in my judgment,
the most delightful place in Scotland

Our dogcart has just driven through the

GROUSE 191

little village of Kilmartin, and we have passed
first the old manse and the kirk, and the
ancient granite monuments and crosses which
represent an earlier form of Christianity, and
shortly afterwards the staring Free Church, with
"desirable villa residence" adjoining, a little
farther on just below the ruins of the old
castle of Kilmartin. Another old ruin, that of
Carnasary Castle, crowns the hill on the left,
for we are at a place where three passes con-
verge ; and the Highland chiefs of former days
had reasons, not always disinterested, for keep-
ing the highways under their immediate observa-
tion. A fair-sized burn — the Scoinish — runs in
a straight artificial course close by the side of
the road. As a fisherman, I regret that it was
not allowed to have its own wilful way ; but
it is easy to see that if the road was to possess
anything but an intermittent existence, the diver-
sion of the stream was a necessity. The old
river-course twisting and turning along the valley
to the left, with all the varieties of pool and
shallow, narrow and rapid, was doubtless much
more to the taste of trout and salmon, but
floods must have of necessity been frequent
and destructive. Now the fishing is not of
much account, and an occasional sea-trout after
a spate is all it affords to the legitimate angler,
although hundreds of salmon run up in the
autumn to spawn, and doubtless pay toll to

192 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

the poacher when out of condition. In the
corner under the plantation a deep hole, now
dry, still bears the title of the " Pool of the
Coat of Mail." Tradition relates that a Mac-
callum, after a gallant defence of the old castle
of Kilmartin against a band of his hereditary
foes, was obliged to sally forth when they had
set fire to his stronghold and made it literally
"too hot to hold him." He succeeded in cut-
ting his way through his tormentors, but had
to jump into the pool to cool his armour,
which was too warm to be comfortable. Lucky
for him that the engineers had not then had
their wicked will with the stream, for now the
water is hardly knee-deep, and the poor man
would have been roasted like a lobster in its
shell.

Nothing, it seems, daunts the true disciple
of Izaak Walton, for there, in front of us, is
one in a deplorable plight. He stands in the
road with a rod of portentous length leaning
against the dyke beside him. His eyes are
turned upwards as if appealing to Heaven ; but
as we draw nearer we ascertain that he is other-
wise occupied, and that the words proceeding
out of his mouth are not supplications. His
hook is attached to the telegraph wire over his
head, half way between the two posts, and, in
spite of violent jerks, the stout gut declines to
give way. His position tells its own story.

GROUSE 193

Evidently he has had a bite, and, striking " not
wisely but too well," has caught — not the fish,
but the telegraph wire. There is nothing for
it but a break, for even if he could swarm up
one of the posts, the hook would still be out
of his reach. We cannot wait to see the finale,
but until we turn the corner the connection is
still complete.

When we turn again to the right, it is easy
enough to see that we are skirting the course of
what was once a far mightier stream, but one
that has been diverted in prehistoric times and
by no human hand. We are now within three
miles of Loch Awe, on a nearly level road, and
the traces of a large river are clearly visible imme-
diately below us. Under the precipitous wooded
hill to our left, great water-worn boulders show
where a grand pool must formerly have been,
but pheasants and rabbits are feeding where
salmon and trout once lurked. Doubtless this
was once the course of the River Awe, and
there would be no great engineering difficulty
in letting the lake run this way again. A little
bit farther on, where we turn off the main
road, the two small lochs where the wild ducks
and coot are feeding, as well as the burn we
pass on our way up the brae, discharge their
waters into Loch Awe.

The road here degenerates into a mere farm
track, very steep in places ; but we have not

N

194 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

much farther to go, for here is Stroneska farm,
where dogs and keepers are waiting for us.
Altogether there are eight dogs — six pointers
and two setters ; but two of the pointers are
only young ones in their first season, brought
out more for the benefit of their education
than to help the sport. In addition to the
head-keeper, and the one to whose beat the
ground belongs, there are two gillies, one of
whom bears on his back an enormous pannier,
capable of holding some thirty brace of grouse,
and no light weight, if, as occasionally happens,
it is filled at the close of the day. It is the
theory of the laird that ponies cannot be taken
over the ground, and there is no doubt that
there are many excessively boggy hollows and
awkward dykes ; but I confess to being scepti-
cal as to the alleged impossibility, having seen
much of the instinctive capacity of a well-trained
Highland pony for finding its way across diffi-
cult country. However, the gillies do not have
a hard time of it. Their duty is to keep out of
sight of us, but within sound of a whistle, in
case fresh dogs or cartridges are wanted, and
most of their time is spent in lounging about
until the end of the day's sport, when the
hamper has to be taken down to the dog-
cart. Then it is a sight to see how a tall
Highlander can step out in spite of the weight
on his shoulders ; but your West Coast man is

GROUSE 195

better at an energetic spurt than at prolonged
exertion.

The first part of our beat is up a low hill,
mainly grass and rushes, with only a few patches
of heather; still, it is worth while to hunt it,
as it is on the way, and there is nothing so
tiresome as a long walk to the ground. The
principal inhabitants are the ubiquitous rabbits,
which here and now are a nuisance, and nothing
but it. When you see the side of a hill lite-
rally alive with them in the late evenings, it is
hard to believe that men still living remember
the first artificial introduction of the rabbit into
Argyleshire, and the prophecies that they would
never do in such a wet climate. "Let Rake
go ! " and off gallops a strong well-proportioned
setter, delighted to have the first turn — a dis-
tinction he owes rather to his defects than to
his merits, as it is now impossible to spoil him.
" Is that a very young dog ? " says my com-
panion, rather new to the sport and misled by
the frantic activity of the debutant. " He is
as old as a man," is the reply of the keeper —
a slight exaggeration, but bordering on the truth,
for I can remember Rake almost as an institu-
tion. What a hot day that was at Achoish,
when, we having toiled all the morning and found
no birds, Rake caught the sheep by the leg !
He never was known to do such a thing before
or since, and I firmly believe he thought that

196 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

we ought to have some flesh meat to take home,
and that, as it appeared to be hopeless to find
grouse, mutton should serve our turn for the
nonce. But see — to-day he has turned to stone
about a hundred and fifty yards off, and my
companion cocks his gun and quickens his pace.
I warn him not to hurry, that it is always better
to go slow up to a point — a counsel of perfec-
tion which he hears but does not obey ; and
while my judgment condemns, my heart rather
approves, for is he not young — lucky fellow ! —
and this the first point of the season? I have
a pretty good notion what Rake has found in
that rushy bit, and if I am right there is no
hurry.

We get close up to the dog before any-
thing moves, and have to force him forward,
so near is he to the game ; then there is a
whirr of wings, and, just as the warning
'"Ware hen" breaks from my lips, there is a
report and a fall, and the laws of the country
and of sport are outraged by the destruction of
a well-grown young grey hen. Alas for the be-
ginning of the season ! Yet, let those who have
never committed a similar mistake first cast
a stone at my companion, who is profuse
in his apologies, and sees the old hen and
seven other young birds fly off almost in suc-
cession, presenting the most tantalising marks.
Next, two or three snipe rise one after another,

\

N:

V

GROUSE 197

and a couple of them fall victims, while Rake
— alas ! that I should say it — more than once
points at a rabbit, but in a constrained attitude
and with glaring eyes, which gives me a pretty
good idea what he is after. We do not fire
at the rabbits, not merely for fear of spoiling
the dog, but also because if we killed all we
saw the bag would be difficult to carry, and
we are after nobler game. We are now coming
to the heather, and we might safely hunt the
younger dogs, but I cannot find it in my heart
to take Rake up until he has had a chance,
which comes quickly enough. A capital point,
and a nice rise of a good covey of nine ; this
time there is no mistake made, and two brace
are neatly killed — one by each gun — the young
birds well grown and feathered. Then we whistle
up the reserve dogs, and Rake is taken up for
the present — a pair of white and tan pointers,
Juno and Diomede, quartering the ground in
front of them with clockwork regularity.

So the morning goes on with varying fortune :
the sun is rather hot, the scent not first-rate,
and sometimes we go half -an -hour without a
shot ; but when we reach the wire fence by the
march of Craig-an-terrive, we find that another
sportsman has been on the ground. We pick
up two freshly killed grouse, and from the con-
dition of their heads it is easy to see that the
murder has been the work of a peregrine. Here

198 AUTUMNS IN AKGYLESHIRE

the keeper casts a reproachful glance at me,
as I never fire my gun at the magnificent birds,
and rejoice at the laird's orders that they should
not be trapped. Inveterate poachers they are,
no doubt — but what a beautiful thing is the
swoop of a wild peregrine ! Perhaps I shall see
my friend himself later on. By one o'clock we
stop at a lovely little spring, coming straight
out of the side of the hill, and stretch our limbs
and inspect the bag while our luncheon is being
unpacked. There are eleven brace of grouse —
counting the grey hen, which must masquerade
under that title, and an old blackcock — whose
illegal slaughter must, I fear, be attributed not
to accident, but design — four snipe and a hare.
Altogether a fair morning's work ; for I usually
calculate on the afternoon bag doubling that of
the morning — the birds are easier to find, and
the evening is the best time for shooting. There
let them cool while we discuss our lunch and
the best pipe of the day.

Half-an-hour — or perhaps three-quarters ! — sees
us once more on the move, and here we are
on some of our best ground, just above Loch
Leachan — a fair-sized loch, with a curious little
stone island near its middle. It is very calm
just now, and although it is some distance off,
we can see a flock of duck near the reeds, and
the circles made by the rising trout. Here we
pick up a good many birds, and spare one or

GROUSE 199

two coveys of squeakers — second broods, to all
appearance ; and here we fall in with our poacher
of the morning. As we round the corner of a
knoll, three curlews come flying towards us, and,
contrary to the custom of these shy birds, keep
going round us in circles, close to the ground
and almost within gunshot; and, sure enough,
behind them is the falcon, who sheers off when
he observes us, but does not go far off, if I
know anything of his habits. When, later, the
curlews fly off in the direction of Loch Crinan,
there is a rush of wings, and we see one of the
finest bits of wild hawking it was ever my pri-
vilege to witness. I have seen the falcon after
terns, ducks, and grouse, but I never saw any-
thing to equal that rapid flight after the curlew
— one of which, alas ! succumbed at last, but
at such a distance that I could only just note
that the two joined and fell together.

We now turn in the same direction as the
falcon flew, for, like the curlew, our home is
by the sea ; and at half-past six Duncan and
his ponies are despatched by a straight path to
Roodel Glen, where the keeper's cart is wait-
ing. He carries nearly thirty brace on his back ;
and we have added two or three more to the
bag, as well as a couple and a half of ducks, by
the time we reach the glen at seven o'clock.
Happily, the dogcart has been sent for us —
a concession to my age and infirmities, as it

200 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

always used to be the custom to walk home
from Roodel. But I am just as well pleased to
be spared two miles along the road after a day
which has been fairly hard, although thoroughly
enjoyable.

CHAPTEK XIII

GROUSE-DRIVING

One of the most remarkable characteristics of
the red grouse is the difference in the degree of
wildness which it shows in different localities.
In some of the islands on the west coast of
Scotland it is difficult to make the coveys rise,
even late in the season ; and it would be possible
for persevering and persistent guns to exterminate
the breed altogether. On the mainland of Argyle-
shire, and especially in the south of the peninsula
of Cantyre, the grouse are still very tame during
the early part of the season, and even late in
October will often sit to dogs on a fine day with
bright sun and a slight touch of frost. In Perth-
shire early good sport can be had with pointers
and setters, although several coveys rise out
of range, but later in the season it is next to
impossible to approach the birds, except round
the corners of hills, or in very broken ground,
and dogs are rather a hindrance than a help.
A single very steady old pointer or setter, or a
well-broken spaniel which will keep quite close
to hand, will sometimes find a stray bird so

201

202 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

unaccountably tame that otherwise it would have
escaped notice ; but this is the exception which
proves the rule. Coming farther south to the
Border country, on the long rolling moors of
Eskdale and Teviotdale the grouse are still
wilder, and I have the dogs taken up and walk-
ing in line resorted to for preference, even in
the first week in August. In Westmorland
the birds are wilder than in Roxburghshire and
Berwick, and in many parts of Yorkshire the
practice of walking after grouse at all has fallen
quite into desuetude — a strange anomaly, which
cannot altogether be accounted for by the char-
acter of the heather and the number of birds.
It is true, as a rule, that birds are wildest
where they are most plentiful and where the
heather is shortest ; but I have known them
tame on very bare ground and unapproachable
in the most luxuriant heather, and it really
seems as if the nature of the birds varied in
different localities. The practice of driving has
its origin, not in the laziness of the modern
sportsman, but in the necessity for some method
of getting at birds which had really learnt to
defy all other modes of pursuit. For this pur-
pose the wildness of the birds is actually an
advantage. Fewer beaters are required to put
them up and send them forward, and the tame
coveys, which alight before facing the line of
fire, and run about spying the ground before

GROUSE-DRIVING 203

them with outstretched necks and uplifted heads,
are almost certain to penetrate the secret of
the most skilful ambush, and to face the waving
flags and demonstrative gestures of beaters and
flankers in preference to the hidden danger indi-
cated by the glint of a barrel or the motion of
a hand. What originated in necessity has been
continued from choice, and from its own inhe-
rent advantages. Wherever driving has been
adopted, grouse have increased in numbers and
in health, as the old cocks have found their tac-
tics of getting off in advance of their juvenile
relations resulted in their drawing the first fire
instead of escaping altogether. Gradually the
practice spread, and the inveterate conservatism
of keepers has at length, and with difficulty,
been induced to tolerate, and eventually en-
courage, driving with the best results, in places
where for years they asserted that it was im-
possible and absurd to attempt it.

I do not wish to embark upon the well-worn
controversy, earned on not so much between
the actual votaries of driving and shooting over
dogs, as between certain writers masquerading
in their names, whose works usually betray an
equal ignorance of both methods. My tastes
are catholic in such matters, and it does not
seem necessary to exalt one sport by disparag-
ing another. I should be very sorry to see
shooting over dogs altogether done away with,

204 AUTUMNS IN AKGYLESHIRE

for nothing in my eyes is more beautiful than
to see a pair of well-trained pointers or setters
ranging a moor obedient to the least gesture
or motion of a silent keeper. I would as soon
see horses altogether displaced by puffing and
smelling automobiles, as lose my opportunity of
watching those beautiful examples of instinct
and training; but it is not necessary to shut
one's eye to certain obvious advantages of driv-
ing, or to declaim against "arm-chair" sports-
men. It is idle to deny that a driven grouse
presents a much more difficult mark for the gun
than a bird rising just when you expect him
in the very spot indicated by a point. The
"proof of the pudding is in the eating," and
numbers of men can secure a good bag walking
who can hardly kill one bird out of twenty
streaming over their heads. It is a real treat
to see a first-rate workman crumple up his
birds, but it requires long training as well as
a quick hand and eye before two guns can be
so handled as to enable the owner to secure
three or four birds out of a pack. Again,
driving is a more sociable form of sport than
its rival, and the same ground will provide amuse-
ment for a large party. But I love variety ; and
the ideal moor to my thinking is one where the
birds sit well to dogs early in the season, and
the drivers get their turn later on.

For a detailed and scientific description of

GROUSE-DRIVING 205

all the best ways and means of carrying on a
drive successfully, I must refer my readers to
the admirable articles by Lord Granby, published
in the "Badminton," and to the well-known
treatise of Mr. Archibald Stuart Wortley on
" Grouse " in the " Fur, Feather, and Fin " series.
Both are past masters of the art upon which
they write, and are as skilful with the pen as
with the double-barrel. A keeper who can
manage a drive well is a treasure, and requires
all the qualities of a general commanding an
army in the field — temper, patience, and in-
fluence over men as well as an accuracy of
observation and instinctive knowledge of the
habits of birds and animals. The conformation
of the ground and the currents of the wind
should also be thoroughly noted, and, given a
combination of knowledge and these qualities,
there is hardly any place where I should pro-
nounce successful driving to be impossible. The
position of the butts must of course be deter-
mined by the trend of the ground ; but they
should be placed in as straight a line as possible,
and so concealed from the front by rising ground
that the guns can get into their places, having
approached them unseen. The rising ground
should, however, not be too near, as it is next
to impossible to shoot well if you are unable
to see your birds until they are close upon you.
This combination of advantages cannot, however,

206 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

be obtained in all instances, and one or more
of the guns has to put up with very difficult
shots, but is often compensated for his disad-
vantage in that respect by getting more birds
over him than those who are favoured with a
more distant horizon. The sides of the butts
should be sufficiently high to screen the occu-
pant from chance pellets, but this again is not
always possible, and great care should be exer-
cised not to fire along the line. This may
sound like an unnecessary warning, or one, at
all events, that should only be addressed to
tailors and tyros ; but my experience shows that
it needs to be hammered in by constant repeti-
tion. I have seen good and careful sportsmen,
new to grouse-driving, fire dangerous shots, and
have had difficulty afterwards in persuading
them of the truth of the impeachment. The
fact is that they believed that they were
firing well in front, and did not allow for the
swing of the gun in following the bird at an
obtuse angle to the right or left. The safe
rule is only to shoot birds either well in front
or behind, and never under any circumstances
to follow the pack with the barrels right round
a semicircle. Different treatment is meted out
to delinquents by different people. I remem-
ber one sufferer whom I found bleeding from
a wound in the nose at the end of a drive, who
entreated me to say nothing about it, as he was

GROUSE-DRIVING 207

sure his next-door neighbour would be dread-
fully unhappy if he knew he had hit him ; and
another, less indulgent, who placed a careless
sportsman in a gravel-pit for the remainder of
the day, patiently expecting the grouse, which
were being driven in quite a different direction.

The careful placing of flankers is even of more
importance than the regulation of the drivers
themselves. A pack is readily turned by a con-
cealed flag-bearer rising at the right moment, the
element of surprise and suddenness being more
important for the purpose of alarming wild crea-
tures than any obtrusive and noisy demonstra-
tions. The drivers themselves should advance
in a good military line and at an even pace,
holding their flags in an upright position. They
should preserve silence, and not trouble them-
selves to shout and wave their flags at birds
flying back. Such tactics only very occasionally
turn a covey which has made up its mind to
" face the music," and are decidedly detrimental
to the general success of the drive. I have
often contrasted the mechanical advance of a
well-drilled team, say in Yorkshire or the Low-
lands, with the antics of the scratch pack who
are pressed together for an occasional drive in
Argyleshire. The latter is very amusing, but it
is not the real article. The line is erratic, and
the moment a covey rises, all the beaters stand
still waving flags and shouting " Mark ! " until

208 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

they are out of sight. As a consequence, the
birds a long way ahead become on the alert,
and often have grasped the fact that a drive
is going on in time to give mature considera-
tion to their safest line of flight. Probably,
however, if your sense of humour is keen, you
may derive so much amusement from the per-
formance of your ill-disciplined assistants as
will compensate you for the loss of a certain
amount of sport.

It is well to be prepared for all weathers,
more especially for extremes of cold and heat.
A good warm cape, which can be easily thrown
off when the birds begin to come, is an almost
indispensable requisite ; and a good tweed is
preferable to a waterproof, and will turn almost
as much wet. It is a risky thing to sit facing
a bleak north-easter or a West Highland shower
in thin garments, after you have heated yourself
with a climb, often long and severe, to get from
one set of butts to another. I think I have
been colder out driving than when pursuing any
other form of sport. Spring fishing on the Tay,
or waiting for the mist to clear in an exposed
place in a deer-forest, are chilly proceedings,
but a snowstorm in November accompanied by
a cold squall is also a very effective method of
reducing the temperature. One sportsman, a
member of Parliament, was guilty of the heinous
crime of lighting a fire in his butt and going

GROUSE-DRIVING 209

to sleep, letting the grouse stream over his
head uninjured ; and extenuating circumstances
may at least be pleaded in mitigation of his
sentence. I have started out grouse-driving on
worse days than I have ever faced any other
form of shooting. It is difficult to say No
when a drive has been planned long before-
hand and guns and beaters collected from a
distance, especially when the end of the season
is approaching and it must be now or never.
The best way is to be prepared to face all con-
tingencies, and remember that often a very bad
morning ripens out into a bright day, while
determined bad weather may follow on the most
glorious sunrise. It is not like covert-shooting,
where a really wet morning is fatal to sport,
as the undergrowth will be dripping and the
birds draggled, even if the weather clears soon
after the start ; for grouse soon recover the
effects of the heaviest showers, and rise more
easily and fly farther after some hours of storm.
The views too after the air has cleared are often
magnificent, and as I write I can recall glorious
views of Ailsa Craig and Arran from the rolling
hills of Ayrshire, or the mist clearing from the
high hills around Millden or Invermark.

An improvised drive, when birds have turned
out too wild to walk, or a lot of old black-
cocks or grouse have been spied on a hillside
stubble or a green brae on the edge of a moor,

o

210 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

is also very amusing. It is a real triumph to
circumvent the former — wily old stagers with
lyre-shaped tails and glossy plumage, which
always rise well out of shot unless stalked or
driven. How the heart beats as one cautiously
crawls round under peat hag or dyke, and
what excitement one has for a too brief quarter
of an hour or twenty minutes, from the first
peep, when one finds that one has gained
one's ambush unperceived. Next, uplifted heads
and excited movements show that the birds
have detected the advance of the keepers and
gillies before you can see any of them, and
then all take to flight, perhaps disappointing
you by going right away to the right or left,
but sometimes coming straight over you, and
leaving two of their number dead, before and
behind you. Such a shot is worth a dozen on
a set day, for you feel that you have pitted
your own instinct and experience against that
of those sagacious creatures, and come off the
conqueror.

CHAPTER XIV
CHILL OCTOBER

A fine crisp morning, with a touch of white
frost on the ground. What is to be the order
of the day? The river will not fish, as there
has been no rain to speak of for the last three
days, and the tide will be in the lower pools ;
so we must go into the gunroom and consult
Robert Brodie, the keeper.

What a typical snuggery was the old gun-
room at Poltalloch ! — the cedar cupboards con-
taining every variety of weapon in use during
the past forty years, representing the progress of
arms of precision from ancient muzzle-loading
guns and rifles to the latest hammerless ejectors
and expresses ; and of fishing-rods and reels,
from weather-beaten hickory joints and weird
multiplying brass winches with huge projecting
handles, to the latest triumph of the most cele-
brated London, Alnwick, or Irish makers.

In the centre of the mantelpiece hangs a
trophy from Canada — a huge moose's head, with
each flat horn big enough to make a comfort-
able seat, back and all ; while underneath it is

211

212 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

a strange nondescript, so singed by a hundred
candles that, were it not for the claws on the
shield beside it, it would be difficult to recognise
it for the " old man " kangaroo which turned
desperately to bay after a sharp breather in
South Australia. At the far end, African ante-
lopes' horns surmount a trophy of South Sea
clubs, which have an historical interest as well
as a decorative value, for they were a gift from
Captain Cook to his friend Dr. Orme — the great-
grandfather of the present laird — presented just
before he sailed on his last fatal voyage on July
11, 1776. In the corner are a confused bundle
of old bows and arrows, a narwhal horn, and
the weapon of a swordfish ; while above the
cupboard two miserable little red deers' heads
from the island of Jura testify by contrast to
the care with which the breed has been improved
by Mr. Evans, the present lessee of the forest,
to enable him to show the splendid trophies
which now decorate his dining-room walls. How
many a jolly evening have I spent in that dear
old gunroom ! What pleasant companions used
to gather there for their sociable cigars and
pipes — seated, some of them, on cartridge boxes
and cane chairs ; for the old prejudice against a
regular smoking-room still existed. As I write,
I still seem to sniff the scent of the cocoanut
matting and to hear the drip of the rain from
the eaves into the balcony outside — a welcome

CHILL OCTOBER 213

sound, as it meant a spate and the river in order
before long.

A ring at the bell, and old Brodie's slow step
is heard approaching along the passage — a slow
step now, for he is old and " gey stout ; " but in
his day there was not a better walker or a keener
hand. His time on the hill is over, and now
he reserves himself for a general superintend-
ence ; but what he especially loves is driving his
cart along the roads when we are hunting the
woods for fallow deer, " for fear they should
break oot." How often has the tootle of his
horn announced that the buck has evaded us,
in spite of the wheels of his chariot !

After a good deal of shouting — for old Robert
is very hard of hearing, and, like many deaf per-
sons, thinks it necessary to raise his voice, as if
everybody shared his infirmity — it is arranged
that Brock and I should try for a mixed bag
along the river, and finish up the day by wait-
ing under the bank of the burn in the evening
between the brae face of Achnashellach and the
field of oats near the river, which are not yet
carried, when we may hope to get some nice
rocketing shots at grouse and blackcock coming
in to feed. No need to go on wheels ; we can
start from opposite the kennels, and have the
dogcart to meet us at Bridge End in the even-
ing. And at half-past ten we duly rendezvous at
the gate by the Scoinish burn, where the keeper

214 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

and two gillies are waiting with an old steady
pointer — and York, the antediluvian retriever.
We take our guns at once ; for there are a couple
of fields of scanty turnips and potatoes between
the moss and the burn, where we may find a
covey of partridges to vary the bag. We mean
to get at least eight sorts of game to-day ; and,
if lucky, we may easily do better, for I have often
seen many more than that number of varieties on
the ground we are to traverse in the next few
hours.

We shall not long be left in doubt, for the old
dog will cover the whole field in a few minutes,
and, sure enough, he is feeling something now.
A whirr of wings, and I just stop myself in time
from pulling the trigger at a half- grown hen-
pheasant, and a minute or two later five partridges
rise and sweep to the left across my companion,
who neatly disposes of a brace. First blood
for Harry ! We now come to a little heathery
fir plantation intersected by the road to Drim-
vawr. Here we go forward while it is carefully
beaten through, as it almost always holds game.
A fine old cock-pheasant blunders up just opposite
to me, and I stop his course through the fir trees.
His long spurs tell of many a year's race across
the moor, and he evidently would not have risen
— for there are no such refinements as stops —
had he not, unfortunately for himself, shaped his
course direct for my feet. We are in luck here

CHILL OCTOBER 215

this morning, as we get two glossy old blackcocks,
a pigeon, and a woodcock — probably one bred on
the ground, as the nights from abroad do not
begin to arrive until about the full moon on the
10th at earliest. Three roe are seen, one a buck
with a pretty head ; but although we should like
to add another specimen to the bag, we neither
of us care to shoot at them with a smooth-bore

A few steps onwards bring us, past a small
cluster of old " black houses," to the foot-bridge
across the Add, near Dalnahassaig. As we cross
it, the river looks deceptively high, but there is
a deadness of the current and an oily smooth-
ness out of the wind which reveal to the practised
eye that the tide is in. A red fish — a soldier —
greets us with a splash as we pass ; but we pay
him no attention, as we are not having what we
call a "Robinson Crusoe day" to-day. Some-
times I have visited these happy hunting-grounds
with a gun, a rod, and a pea-rifle, so as to be
ready to stalk a blackcock on the peat stalks
with the latter weapon, or to get a duck, snipe,
or plover, or grouse on the edge of the moor in
the intervals of flogging the pools for salmon and
sea-trout; and my boys used to call such days
" Robinson Crusoe days," from my fancied resem-
blance to the old pictures of the solitary islander
parading his little kingdom with his fine assort-
ment of weapons.

But what are those little brownish birds run-

216 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

ning about so busily beyond the cattle on the
green rushy field immediately opposite the end
of the bridge ? Golden plovers, but in a per-
fectly bare open place, where there is no chance
of stalking them. Still something must be at-
tempted to secure so acceptable an addition to
the bag and the larder ; and after some discus-
sion, it is settled that Harry shall creep round
under the broken bank of the river, and hide
himself just where there is a white gate in the
iron fence, while one of the gillies stands on the
bridge as a " flanker," and I and the others go
round and try to drive them — not an easy thing
to do, for they generally go where they wish,
irrespective of your desires in the matter. How-
ever, an unusual, although by no means un-
precedented, thing happens on this occasion.
Generally these very shy birds are off with a
shrill whistle long before you are within a hun-
dred yards of them ; but occasionally they have
a stupid fit, and it is with surprise that I find
myself within fifty and then forty yards before
they take flight. Then, just as I am trying to
get two or three in line, for no law is given to
these migrants, they rise, and I fire one barrel
at that moment and another as, with a rapid
turn of the wings, altering the shape and posi-
tion of the flock, they pass rather wide to the
right. Two fall at once, one a runner, and an-
other drops a hundred yards off. No very sue-

CHILL OCTOBER 217

cessful result, as I have often known more to
fall to one shot, but the number killed at a
fairly long range is rather a matter of luck than
skill ; and nothing comes of the ambuscade, as
the flock disappears out of sight without giving
my companion a chance.

Just beyond the bend of the stream is a con-
siderable-sized swampy patch of reeds known as
the " old river," doubtless a former bed of the
Add, which has changed its course in more than
one place for natural and artificial reasons, almost
within living memory. This is a certain find
for snipe, and must be carefully worked ; so
we walk along, one on each side, with the keeper
between us, but not in the middle, as it would
in places take him nearly over his head ; while
the old retriever splashes about in the centre,
as if he understood and enjoyed the job — as is,
indeed, the case. We have put No. 8 cartridges
in the right-hand barrel, but kept our No. 5 in
the left, as there may be a stray duck or some
teal left, although a large flock of the former flew
away when the double shot was fired at the
plovers. It is wet, and tiresome walking, and
none the more pleasant that the snipe - seem to
be wild to-day. Half a dozen are " scape scap-
ing " out of range of us before we have well
settled to business, and the first and second shots
are fruitless of result, and perhaps ought not to
have been fired at all, as the birds were almost,

218 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

if not quite, out of range. But the next bird
rises quite close to my feet, and there was no
excuse for my missing him, as I did, except
flurry and the provoking irregularity of his
flight. However, the next two fall, and we do
pretty well along the remainder of the beat,
securing altogether five couple and a half, a
duck, and two teal. Six of these little beauties
rose within shot of Harry, and he ought to have
got a right and left, but only secured one ; how-
ever, he retrieved his laurels by killing the second
stone dead, as the bereaved five wheeled round
a second time almost out of shot.

There is not likely to be much in the rushy
field between us and Dunadd, the hill about a
mile beyond us. There may be a hare or an
odd snipe or so ; but we look about us and note
the flock of old blackcocks that are nearly always
sitting on the edge of the moss somewhere here-
abouts, but are too wary to often pay toll to
the sportsman. If we tried to stalk them, the
chances are that after one of us had had a long
crawl in a damp drain they would be off just as
he was hoping against hope for a shot, and settle
again to jeer at us not far off — very likely on the
bank of the "old river" we have just left.

" A blot in heaven, the raven flying high,"

whose unmistakable bark calls attention to his
presence, is all we see afterwards until we

CHILL OCTOBER 219

arrive at Dunadd, where we intend to stop for
lunch.

Dunadd is a queer-shaped solitary hill rising
out of the flat moss, and a keeper stationed there
with a good glass can spy a poacher on any pool
in the river from Kilmichael to Crinan, which
accounts for the fact that unlawful rod-fishing
by day is a form of poaching seldom attempted.
At its foot, in a snug little recess under a rock
overgrown with lastraea and lady-fern, a beautiful
little ice-cold spring marks an ideal halting-place ;
and as it is the only well for some miles, and
close to a first-rate stretch of the river, luncheon
is so often served there between one and two that,
but for our tidy habit of burning our paper when
we light our pipes, the grass around it would re-
semble the Green Park after a Bank Holiday.
There the game is laid out, and we dispose of half
a cold grouse, some bread-and-butter, egg sand-
wiches with a little cress in them, and a slice of
cake, washed down with the cool spring water just
flavoured with the Lovat blend. A salmon from
time to time splashes in the pool below, and
we can see the light form of a fallow deer feed-
ing on the rocky clearing in Baltimore wood
opposite to us, and a pair of buzzards wheel-
ing in broad circles round • the summit of Suc-
coth. But we must be stirring soon if we are
to be at Achnashellach in time for the black-
cock, and somewhat reluctantly we rise from our

220 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

comfortable seats, and pursue our course up the
stream.

We must "gang warily" through the hazel
copse at the next bend, as the round backwater
just below the Boy's pool is always a sure find
for duck, and it is an easy place to get at
them. Some rabbits scuttle away through the
ferns, and a wood-pigeon flaps round the rowan ;
but we reserve our fire, and it is lucky that
we do so, for eight or nine ducks rise quack-
ing as our heads appear over the dyke, and
three of them fall to our volley. A couple
of snipe rise as the old dog splashes into the
water after the winged mallard ; but we have
not got our cartridges in quick enough to secure
them. A rabbit or two are rolled over as we
plod through the rushes ; they have an unac-
countable love of burrowing in the banks of
the river, although numbers are drowned when-
ever there is a very high flood. My little
terrier generally spends the day hunting them
when I am after the grilse, but he is very
wary of scratching at their holes since the day
he got caught in a gin ; and if I see him
dancing about outside an earth, and giving a
series of growls, I can be pretty sure that I
shall find a trap there. To-day, however, we
are not after bunnies, and content ourselves with
just a couple to vary the bag.

Another little marsh near the Stance pool,

CHILL OCTOBER 221

and a stony place between two bums for which
they have an unaccountable fondness, yield us
a few more snipe, and we are at Kilmichael
bridge; and, as we walk through the farmyard
of Achnashellach, we can see that some at
least of the grouse and blackgame are already
feeding on the stooks of oats in the field by
the river, while more are collected on the rock
among the heather, and on the green patches
on the brae face. The little burn fortunately
flows here between steep banks in a sort of
gully, and we can easily crawl to our places
unperceived. It is a picked place for the
sport. Birds just settling to feed generally
fly low and slow, and afford an unsatisfactory
mark ; but here our ambuscade is in a narrow
place, not in the field itself, but halfway be-
tween the high hill and the corn, and they
come beautifully high down the wind. The
keeper is to give us ten minutes law, and
then walk through the field and put up what
birds are already there, and then concealing
himself when this has been done in the plan-
tation beyond, to watch where the birds fall.
We have about an hour till dusk, and as we
take up our positions some eighty yards apart,
we can hear the crowing of the cock grouse
on the edge of the moor, and see several old
blackcocks walking about on the sky-line,
preening their glossy feathers, and showing

222 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE

a little of the white under their tails. A
whistle from Neill tells that the birds are up,
and soon a stream of more than a hundred are
passing over our heads, but rather wide, and
then a few stragglers. Harry accounts for three ;
I only get one with my two barrels, shooting a
little behind the first bird through not allowing
enough for the pace. The old cocks on the hill
take not the slightest notice of the fusillade.
They are some distance off, and it is noticeable
how little attention these birds pay to the sound
of a shot, if the sportsman who fires it keeps
out of sight. Soon a sentinel rises from the
ground and heads straight for my companion.
Now, let me see if he holds forward enough.
They go so fast, and look as if they were tra-
velling so slow, that it is easy enough to shoot
behind them, and a few pellets too far back have
no more apparent effect than a pea-shooter would
produce on a tiger. But Harry is not new to the
game, and the old sultan crumples up in the air
and comes to the ground with a thud.

Another, then a flock, then some grouse. This
afternoon we are in luck, and for a short time
the fun is fast and furious. Sometimes the old
stagers go on unmoved, although the shot can
be heard to rattle against their breasts ; but there
they are well protected by the close feathers, and
it really requires No. 4 to make sure of them.
One drawback to our amusement is that the wind

CHILL OCTOBER 223

has dropped altogether, and that the " usual
evening midge" is persevering and troublesome,
facing the protective tobacco -smoke with a
courage worthy of a better cause. But all good
things must come to an end, and at last it is
time to gather and count the slain, and wend
our way to the dogcart waiting on the bridge.

The bags are emptied and the game arranged
by the side of the road, and make a picture which
Weenix or Snyders would have loved to paint ;
only there are none of the green woodpeckers,
chaffinches, and such like, for which either the
artist or the sportsman, or both, used to be
responsible. Nine and a half couple of snipe,
five ducks, two teal, one woodcock, one pheasant,
three partridges, two rabbits, seventeen grouse,
twelve blackcocks, and three golden plovers —
total, sixty-five head and ten varieties. And as
we drive home, well wrapped up, through the
now frosty evening air, we agree that, although
neither of us despises a good day's cover shoot-
ing, such a mixed bag is worth a hecatomb of
pheasants.

INDEX

A DAY with a seal, 87-102
Add, river, 8, 136-163
Aflalo, Mr., cost of sport, 3
Auemone, cloak, 115
,, plumose, 8
"Antiquary," Sir Walter Scott's,

75
Askew, Mr., introduced rabbits,

13
Awe, Loch, 184

,, river, old course of, 193

Badger, 15
Bag, good mixed, 223
Bird's-foot starfish, 139
Blackcocks, 33, 215, 216

,, on stooks, 221

Braemore, 66
Brown, Harvie, "Fauna of Argyll

and the Inner Hebrides," 20
Brown snipe, 19

Caldecott, Randolph, "Three

Jovial Huntsmen," 35
Captain Cook, 212
Cat, wild, 10
Cave for seals near Valentia,

Ireland, 75
Chill October, 211-223
Chough, 18
Cloak anemone, 115
Clubs, Captain Cook's, 212
Comatula, 132

Cooking roe, 56

Cormorants, 24

Corvidap, 18

Cost of sport, Aflalo on, 3

Crinan moss, 7

Crab, hermit, 115
,, spider, 115
,, swimming, 114

Curlew, 177-198

Dalhousie, Lord, 58

Darwin, voyage of the Beagle t

121
Day with grilse, a, 163-175
Death of deer, 70
Death of seal, 79, 85
Deer, fallow, at home, 22-41 ;
weight of, 36

„ forest, Braemore, 66

„ ,, Invermark, 57

„ pony, curious accident to,71

„ missed, 63

„ roe, chasing the, 41-56

„ „ cooking of, 56

,, ,, hunting, 40, 41

„ hounds for, 46, 48, 54

„ ,, rifle or shot-gun for, 45,
46

,, „ sanctuary for, 55

„ „ tame, 44

,, ,, unwounded.killedwith
knife, 55

„ stalking, 57-71

„ to rise, waiting for, 65

226

226

INDEX

Depths, out of the, 103-135
Doris, 131
Dr. Orme, 212
Dredging, 103-135
Drive, improvised, 209
Driving grouse, 201-210
Drought of 1894, 153

Eagle, golden, 15, 16

,, osprey, 16
owl, 17

,, sea, 16, 17
Eider duck, 26
Eolis, 131

Evans, Mr. Henry, 212
Esk, North, in flood, 58

Falcon, peregrine, 18, 165, 198
Fallow-deer at home, 20-41

„ „ weight of, 36

"Fauna of Argyll and the Inner

Hebrides," by Harvie Brown,

20
Fern, film, 39

,, osmunda, 39
Fiddlers, velvet, 114
Fish, sense of feeling in, 150
Fowler, Sir John, 66
Foxes, number killed, 15
Foxhounds, 26
Freaks, 20

Gaffing salmon, 169

Goat Island, Loch Craignish, 76

Golden eagle, 15, 16

Golden plover, 216

Golf, 90

Grey hen, 196

Grey phalarope, 19

Grilse, a day with the, 163-175

Grouse, bags of, 190

,, day's shooting of, 190-

200

Grouse, driving, 201-210
,, killed by falcon, 197
,, shooting, 186-210
,, shooting over dogs, 189
,, ,, on stooks, 221

,, variety in wildness of,
201, 202

Harriers, 26

Harvie Brown, " Fauna of Argyll,

20
Hawking curlew, 198
Hawks, 18
Hare, sea, 131

Herds of Proteus, the, 72-86
Hermit crab, 115
Hounds for roe. 46, 48

,, ,, otter, 54
Hymenophyllum Wihoni, 39

Introduction of rabbits, 13
Invermark Forest, 57
Irishman's pool, 146

„ ,, netted, 147

Jackdaw, 18
John Fowler, Sir, 66

Kingcups, 177

King Harry's shells, 1 14

Light tackle, 161
Loch Awe, 184

„ na-Larich, 176-185

„ Luichart, 185

„ Sgoltaire, 185

„ fishing, 176-185
Lubbock, Alfred, on wild cat,

10, 11
Lydekker on wild cat, 10
Lythe, 8

INDEX

227

Macroramphus griseus, 19
Marten, pine, 11, 12

„ „ St. John's descrip-
tion of, 12
Merganser, 25
Methods of poaching, 147
Midges, 28, 38
Minard Castle, 13
Mixed shooting, 211-223

Nil desperandum, 153-162

October, chill, 211-223

Orme, Dr., 212

Osmwida regalis, 39, 40

Osprey, 16

Otter, 15

Out of the depths, 103-135

Partridges, 214
Pen, sea, 120-125
Pennatula phosphorea, 120,

123
Peregrine falcon, 18, 165, 198
Phalarope, grey, 19
Pheasant, 214
Pigeon, wood, 215
Plover, golden, 216
Proteus, the Herds of, 72-86
Poltalloch, 1-21

Rabbits, 12, 13, 14, 15

Rats, 3, 45

Raven, 218

Redbreasted snipe, 19

Retriever, 26

" Rhyme of the Three Sealers,"

Kipling's, 73
Roe, 31

„ chasing the, 41-56

„ cooking of, 56

„ hounds for, 46, 48

„ rifle or shot-gun for, 46

Roe, tame, 44

„ unwounded, killed with

knife, 55
Rook with deformed beak 20
Ross, Edward, 58
Ross, Horatio, 58

Sabella, 131
Salmon-fishing, 136-175

„ good bag of, in low water,

160
Salmon, small flies for, 161,

162
Salmon, wounded by seal, 150
Sea-eagle, 16, 17
„ hare, 120
„ pen, 120, 125
„ rope, 124
„ rush, 106, 117-124
Seal, a day with a, 87-102

„ the Herds of Proteus, 72-
86
Seal, at salmon nets, 76

„ cave, 75

„ death of, 79, 85

„ frightened by salute, 79

„ importation of, 72

„ lost, 100

„ on rocks, 92

„ skinning, 101

„ stalking, 92-97

„ uses of, 74
Serpuloe, 130
Sgoltaire, Loch, 185
Smuggling, 9
Snipe, brown, 19

,, redbreasted, 19

,, shooting, 217
Suowy owl, 17, 18

Teal, 218

Terrier, Poltalloch, 26

Trout, 179, 180, 181

228

INDEX

Velvet fiddlers, 114
Virgularia mirabilis, 106, 117—
124

Water Ranunculus, 177
White woodcock, 20
Wild cat, 10

Wild cat, Lydekker on, 10

„ Alfred Lubbock kills,
with a stone, 10, 1 1
Wild duck, 177

„ turkey, 29, 30
Woodcock, 215

,, carrying young, 39

„ white, 20

THE END

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