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AMID 
THE  HIGH  HILLS 

HUGH  FRASER 


^      ip 


Presented  to  the 

LIBRARY  of  the 

UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO 

by 

JOSEPH  BUI ST 


AMID   THE    HIGH   HILLS 


AGENTS 

America  .    .    The  Macmillan  Company 

64  &  £6  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York 

Australasia    The  Oxford  University  Press 

205  Flinders  Lane,  Melbourne 

Canada    .    .    The  Macmillan  Company  of  Canada,  Ltd. 

St.  Martin's  House,  70  Bond  Street,  Toronto 

India   .    .    .     Ma(^millan  &  Company,  Ltd. 

Macmillan  Building,   Bombay 

309  Bow  Bazaar  Street,  Calcutta 

Indian  Bank  Buildings,  Madras 


AMID 
THE  HIGH  HILLS 


BY 

SIR  HUGH  FRASER 


But  on  and  up,  where  Nature's  heart 
Beats  strong  amid  the  hills." 

Richard  Monckton  Milnes. 


A.  &   C.  BLACK,  LTD. 

4,  5,  &  6   SOHO    SQUARE,   LONDON,  W.l 

1923 


Printedin  Great  Britain  by  R.  &  R.  Clark,  Limited,  Edinburgh. 


TO  ALL  WHO  LOVE  THE  HIGH  HILLS,  AXD 
PARTICULARLY  TO  THOSE MY  DEAR  KINS- 
MEN   AND   FRIENDS   (sOME   OF    WHOM    HAVE 

PASSED  TO  THE  GREAT  BEYOND) TO  WHOM 

I    AM    INDEBTED    FOR    MANY    HAPPY    DAYS 
ON    HILL,    LOCH,    AND    RIVER. 


PREFACE 

For  many  years  past  from  time  to  time  I  have 
contributed  articles  on  sport  and  natural  history 
to  various  journals. 

It  was  recently  suggested  to  me  that  I  should 
publish  these  articles  in  book  form,  and  I  was 
fortunate  enough  to  have  friends  who  kindly 
offered  to  illustrate  them.  I  have  accordingly 
selected  some  of  these  articles,  and  have  included 
others  which  have  never  been  published  before. 
Amongst  the  former  are  some  which  in  the  same 
or  a  slightly  altered  form  have  appeared  in  The 
Field,  Country  Life,  The  Scottish  Field,  The 
Salmon  and  Trout  Magazine,  and  The  Saturday 
Westminster  Gazette.  To  the  editors  of  these 
journals  I  tender  my  warmest  thanks  for  their 
courtesy  and  kindness  in  allowing  me  to  republish 
the  articles  in  question.  To  my  fi'iends,  ^Nlr. 
Finlav  Mackinnon,  Mr.  Vincent  Balfour-Browne, 


viii  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

and  Mr.  Frank  Wallace,  I  am  greatly  indebted 
for  the  pictures  in  colour  and  black  and  white, 
and  the  pencil  sketches  which  they  have  con- 
tributed. 

To  my  friends  and  neighbours,  Lady  Anne 
Murray  of  Loch  Carron  and  Mrs.  Schroder  of 
Attadale,  my  grateful  thanks  are  due — to  the 
former  for  the  photograph,  "  Winter  Sunshine — 
Wild  Geese  at  the  foot  of  Applecross  Hills,"  and 
to  the  latter  for  the  water-colour  drawing,  "  An 
Autumn  Day — Loch  Carron,  looking  West." 

To  my  friend,  Miss  Diana  DarUng,  I  am 
indebted  for  the  photograph,  "  Among  the 
Western  Islands,"  and  to  my  son-in-law,  Mr. 
Noel  Wills,  for  the  pencil  sketch  of  Donald 
M^'Iver,  my  gamekeeper  and  constant  companion 
on  the  hill  for  many  years. 

I  wish  to  thank  Mr.  W.  R.  Bousfield,  K.C., 
F.R.S.,  for  helpful  criticism  from  the  scientific 
point  of  view  on  my  article  "  Birds  of  Fastest 
Flight  in  the  British  Isles,"  and  Mr.  A.  D. 
Bateson,  K.C.,  for  his  kindness  in  reading  the 
book  in  manuscript. 

In  conclusion,  I  should  like  to  say  that,  having 


PREFACE  ix 

derived  so  much  pleasure  from  reading  the  experi- 
ences of  others  who  love  sport  and  natural  history, 
I  venture  to  hope  that  these  pages  may  bring 
back  to  some  of  my  readers  recollections  of  their 
own  delightful  days  amid  the  High  Hills. 

H.  F. 

Stromeferry,  Ross-shire, 
August  1,  1923. 


CONTENTS 


I.  The  Charm  of  Sport  amid  the  High   Hills 
II.  Stalking  in  its  most  Enjoyable  Form 

III.  A  Great  Fish  and  a  Greater  Fisherman 

IV.  The  Birds  of  Fastest  Flight  in  the  British   Isles 
V.  A  Good  Day  in  the  Forest  of  Coignafearn 

VI.  A  Stalker's  Peril  . 
VII.  The  Luck  of  Salmon  Fishing 
VIII.   A  Stormy  Week  in  the  Forest     . 
IX.  A  Salmon  Loch  in  Sutherland 
X.  The   Homing  Instincts  of  Wounded  Deer 
XI.   The  Method  by  which  Etagles  and  Hawks  secure 

their  Prey         .... 
XII.   Instances  of  Wounded  Stags  attacking  Stalkers 

XIII.  Trapped        ..... 

XIV.  The  Last  Stalk  of  the  Season 
XV.  The  Loch   Problem 

XVI.  The  Surgeon  of  the   Deer  Forest 

XVII.  The  Secret  of  the  High  Hills    . 

Index     ..... 
xi 


1 
6 

12 
23 
71 
81 
85 
97 
113 
123 

136 

155 
165 
170 
182 
197 
215 
221 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

*   Those  marked  with  an  asterisk  are  in  colour. 

*September  Snow,  Loch  Carron,  Ross-shire  .      Frontispiece 

By  Finlay  Mackinnon. 

FACING   PAOB 

*"  The  joy  of  watching  deer  when  they  have  no  suspicion 

that  they  are  being  watched "  .  .  .  1 

By  V.  R.  Balfour-Browne. 

Golden  Days  ......  4 

By  V.  R.  Balfour-Browne. 

■*"See  !  from  the  tops  the  mist  is  steaUng "  .  .  6 

By  Finlay  Mackinnon. 

*"  The  salmon  leaped  twice  straight  up  into  the  air"        .        l6 
By  V.  R.  Balfour-Browne. 

The  Peregrine  Falcon        .  .  .  .  .26 

By  V.  R.  Balfour-Browne. 

Winter    Sunshine  —  Wild    Geese    at    the    Foot    of    the 

Applecross  Hills  .  .  .  .36 

From  a  Photograph  by  The  Lady  Anne  Murray  of  Loch 
Carron. 

*The  Spine-tailed  Swift       .  .  .  .  .40 

By  V.  R.  Balfour-Browne. 

xiii 


xiv  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

FACING    PAGE 

*The  Golden  Eagle .  .  .  .  •  .64 

By  V.  R.  Balfour-Browne. 

Where  the  Golden  Eagle  reigns    .  .  .  .68 

From  a  Photograph  by  Frank  Wallace. 

*Preparing  for  Battle  .  .  .  .  .76 

By  Frank  Wallace. 

*"  Take  the  fifth,  he's  the  best  "     .  .  .  .80 

By  V.  R.  Balfour-Browne. 

In  the  Forest  of  Fannich   .  .  .  .  .82 

By  Finlay  Mackinnon. 

"  He  had  the  advantage  of  some  inches  over  my  little 

grandson,  who  was  nearly  five  years  old"  .        90 

From  a  Photograph  by  Mrs.  Noel  Wills. 

*Sligachan,  Isle  of  Skye      .  .  .  .  .96 

By  Finlay  Mackinnon. 

"  Lying  on  a  ridge  we  spied  some  deer"  .  .  .98 

From  a  Photograph  by  the  Author. 

The  Five  Sisters  of  Kintail  •  .  .  .104 

By  Finlay  Mackinnon. 

Old  Angus  nearing  Home  .  .  .  .110 

By  V.  R.  Balfour-Browne. 

The  Sanctuary,  Kinlochewe  Forest  .  .  .124 

By  Finlay  Mackinnon. 

"  The  ti'usty  allies  of  our  fathers  on  the  hill  "       .  .128 

By  Philip  Stretton. 

"  I  was  spying  for  some  time  "       .  .  .  .134 

From  a  Photograph  by  the  Author. 

*The  Applecross  Hills,  and  a  Highland  Fishing  Village     .      142 
By  Finlay  Mackinnon. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xv 

FACING    PAOE 

Death  of  the  Mallard         .  .  ,  .  .148 

By  J.  Wolf. 

Among  the  Western  Islands  .  .  .  .166 

From  a  Photograph  by  Miss  Diana  Dariing. 

■*Where  Strome  Castle  looks  over  the  Sea  to  Skye  .      l68 

By  Finlay  Mackinnon. 

*"  The  big  stag  is  still  there "  .  .  .  .176 

By  Frank  Wallace. 

*An  Autumn  Day,  Loch  Carron — looking  West      .  .184 

By  Mrs.  Schroder  of  Attadale. 

Sunset  on  the  Shores  of  Loch  Carron         .  .  .192 

From  a  Photograph  by  Miss  Alexandra  Fraser. 

*0n  the  Edge  of  the  Deer  Forest  ....      200 
By  Finlay  Mackinnon. 

In  Achnashellach  Forest  ....      204 

By  Finlay  Mackinnon. 

*Evening  Glow,  Poolewe,  Ross-shire  .  .  .212 

By  Finlay  Mackinnon. 

*"  The  morning  cometh  "    .  .  .  .  .218 

By  Finlay  Mackinnon. 

Also  pencil  headings  to  each  Chapter. 


C    > 


THE  CHARM  OF  SPORT  AMID 
THE  HIGH  HILLS 

The  fascination  of  deer-stalking  is  largely  due  to 
the  romance  of  the  hill — the  hill  as  it  is  known 
only  to  those  who  love  it  and  understand  some- 
thing of  its  hidden  mysteries.  The  long  day, 
all  too  quickly  ended,  with  the  silent  but 
sympathetic  stalker — alone  with  Nature  in  its 
most  inspiring  and  elevating  form — the  ever- 
changing  beauty  of  sky  and  hill — the  joy  of 
watching  deer  when  they  have  no  suspicion  that 
they  are  being  watched — the  opportunities  of 
seeing  rare  birds  and  finding  rare  plants — all 
these  things  apart  from  the  difficulty  and  interest 
— and  the  greater  the  difficulty  the  greater  the 


2  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

interest — of  trying  to  outwit — in  other  words 
trying  to  get  within  shot  of  the  particular  stag 
one  is  after — go  to  make  up  the  attractions  of 
what  some  of  us  think  is  the  very  best  of  true 
sport. 

I  well  remember  a  famous  statesman,  who 
had  himself  owned  one  of  the  best  deer  forests  in 
the  Highlands,  saying  to  me  that  the  greatest 
attraction  of  stalking  is  that  it  takes  one  to  places 
where  otherwise  one  would  never  go,  and  enables 
one  to  see  the  most  wonderful  things  which 
otherwise  one  would  never  see.  Further,  there 
is  probably  no  form  of  sport  where  less  pain  and 
suffering  are  inflicted,  assuming  that  any  one 
who  stalks  will  take  the  trouble  to  know  his  rifle 
well,  and  will  not  take  a  long  or  risky  shot.  The 
shot  itself  after  all  plays  only  a  small  part  in  the 
pleasure  of  a  day's  stalking.  I  have  friends, 
first-class  rifle  shots,  w^ho  delight  in  stalking, 
and  who,  when  they  have  arrived  within  shot  of 
the  stag  they  have  stalked,  will  sometimes  not 
shoot  at  him  at  all.  This  would  not  always  be 
easily  accomplished  by  those  who  have  strongly 
implanted  within  them  the  instincts  of  the  hunter, 
or  perhaps  I  should  say  the  primitive  man. 

Again,  to  pass  from  stalking,  what  is  the  real 


CHARM  OF  SPORT  AMID  THE  HILLS 

explanation  of  the  intense  enjoyment  of  ptarmigan 
shooting  on  the  high  tops  after  the  close  of  the 
stalking  season  ?  I  have  more  than  once  heard 
this  described  as  the  most  enjoyable  of  all  kinds 
of  shooting.  As  is  well  known,  on  a  still  clear 
day  the  ptarmigan  is  the  easiest  of  birds  to  shoot, 
but  on  a  wild  windy  day  one  of  the  most  diffi- 
cult— twisting  and  turning  with  extraordinary 
rapidity.  Neither  this  latter  fact,  however,  nor 
the  exhilarating  and  bracing  air  at  the  altitude 
where  these  birds  are  to  be  found  wholly  explains 
the  enthusiasm  of  those  who  have  had  this 
sport.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  environment  of 
the  high  hills  and  all  that  this  means  are  largely 
the  cause  of  this  enthusiasm.  The  delights  of 
grouse  shooting,  whether  in  the  case  of  driven 
birds,  or  over  dogs,  are  greatly  increased  by  the 
same  cause.  Without  entering  upon  the  well- 
worn  controversy  as  to  the  respective  advantages 
and  disadvantages  of  these  two  forms  of  sport, 
is  there  any  one  who  has  enjoyed  both  of  them 
amid  the  hills  who  has  not  ineffaceable  memories 
of  the  vistas  of  marvellous  beauty  which  he  has 
revelled  in  again  and  again  while  waiting  in  his 
butt  for  the  first  birds  of  the  drive,  and — to  change 
the  scene — of  the  pleasures  of  many  a  glorious 


4  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

twelfth  in  the  company  of  an  old  friend  with  whom 
he  was  in  perfect  sympathy,  watching  the  dogs  at 
work  amidst  the  purple  heather  on  the  side  of  the 
hill  or  along  the  heather-clad  banks  of  a  burn  ? 

It  is  true  also  of  salmon  and  trout  fishing 
in  the  Highlands  that  the  angler's  sense  of  peace 
and  contentment  is  largely  due  to  the  influence 
of  the  hills.  This  is  especially  so  in  the  golden 
days  at  the  beginning  of  August,  those  glorious 
days  before  the  serious  fun  begins,  when  the 
trout  in  the  loch  are  more  of  an  excuse  than  a 
serious  ploy,  when  one  discusses  the  growdng 
antlers  of  the  big  hart  on  the  Home  beat,  when 
one  basks  in  the  sunshine  of  the  High  Hills. 

Whilst  writing  what  I  have  already  said  about 
stalking  I  recollected  the  following  verses,  which 
I  intend  to  keep  and  read  for  my  encouragement 
in  days  to  come — days  which  are,  I  hope,  still  very 
far  off: 

NORTHWARD  BOUND 

(Once  More) 

Does  your  heart  still  beat  with  the  old  excitement 

As  you  wait  where  the  Scotch  expresses  are  ? 

Does  it  answer  still  to  the  old  indictment 

Of  a  fond  delight  in  the  sleeping-car, 

As  it  did  when  the  rush  through  the  autumn  night  meant 

The  Gate  of  Desire  ajar  ? 


.^o^jlp^ 


/ 


■*1 


?  ■       z 


_  \ 


^i 


^H 


.iHi^siftiik 


CHARM  OF  SPORT  AMID  THE  HILLS  5 

Or  has  the  enclianting  task  grown  tougher, 
And  has  that  arrow  beyond  you  flown  ? 
For  the  hill  that  was  rough  enough  is  rougher, 
The  steepest  climb  that  was  ever  known, 
And  the  forest  appals  a  veteran  duffer 
Sorely  beaten  and  blown  ? 

Oh  !  the  years,  the  years,  they  be  rusty  and  mothy  ; 
Oh  !  the  flesh  it  is  weak  that  once  was  strong  ; 
But  the  brown  burn  under  the  stone  falls  frothy 
And  the  music  it  makes  is  a  siren  song  ; 
Then  the  pony  '11  take  you  as  far  as  the  bothy, 
And  that  '11  help  you  along. 

See  !  from  the  tops  the  mist  is  stealing, 
Out  with  the  stalking-glass  for  a  spy  ; 
Round  Craig  an  Eran  an  eagle's  wheeling 
Black  in  the  blue  September  sky. 
A  fig  for  the  years  !     Why,  youth  and  healing 
At  the  end  of  your  journey  lie. 

(Reprinted  from  Punch,  Sept.   14,   1921,  by  kind  permission  of  the 
Pniprietors.) 


^^-^   v#^ 


'.ftifH^h,. 


II 


/fW. 


STALKING  IN  ITS  MOST  ENJOYABLE 
FORM 

By  far  the  most  enjoyable  form  of  stalking  is  to 
be  one's  own  stalker,  but  this  can  only  be  done 
satisfactorily  in  a  forest  with  which  one  is 
thoroughly  familiar.  It  is  astonishing  what  tricks 
the  wind  will  play  in  certain  corries,  and  as  a 
result  what  mistakes  even  a  good  stalker  will 
make  in  a  forest  which  is  new  to  him.  More- 
over, any  one  stalking  by  himself,  unless  he  has 
experience,  may  easily  make  another  kind  of 
mistake.  lie  may  think  that  he  has  missed  a 
stag  when  he  has  in  fact  killed  him.  Any  one 
who  has  had  experience  in  shooting  deer  knows 
that   a   stag  when   shot   through   the   heart   will 

6 


—         Z 


STALKING  IN  ITS  MOST  ENJOYABLE  FORM     7 

sometimes  gallop  for  forty  or  fifty  yards  or  even 
further  and  then  fall  down  dead. 

Some  years  ago,  preparatory  to  a  few  days' 
stalking  in  a  deer  forest  in  Inverness-shire,  I 
arrived  one  evening  at  the  Lodge  ;  and  later  on 
about  half-past  ten  there  returned  from  the  hill 
a  guest  in  a  state  of  great  dejection  who  had  never 
stalked  until  he  went  out  in  this  forest  a  few  days 
before.  I  felt  very  sorry  for  him,  for  he  had  been 
keen  to  seeure  a  good  head  and  said  that  he 
had  had  a  splendid  chance  of  a  fine  stag  standing 
broadside  at  about  eighty  yards  and  had  missed 
him.  This  was  his  last  chance  as  he  was  leaving 
early  next  morning.  Two  days  later  I  was  out 
on  the  same  beat  when  the  stalker  suddenly 
grasped  me  by  the  arm  and  said,  "  There  is  a 
stag  lying  down  there  to  the  left  of  that  hill  below 
us.  Are  you  seeing  his  horns  above  the  ridge  ?  " 
We  went  cautiously  down  in  the  direction  of  the 
stag,  but  had  not  gone  far  before  we  discovered 
that  the  stag  was  dead.  "  That,"  said  the 
stalker,  "  must  be  the  stag  Mr.  X.  shot  at  two 
days  ago."  We  examined  the  stag  and  found  that 
he  had  been  shot  apparently  through  the  heart 
from  the  knoll  from  which  X.  had  taken  his  shot : 
it  was  obviously  the  same  stag.     The  stalker  then 


8  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

told  me  that  X.  wished  to  stalk  the  last  hundred 
yards  alone  and  had  asked  him  to  stay  behind, 
that  X.  had  the  shot  and  came  back  saying  that 
he  had  missed  the  stag.  Neither  the  stalker  nor 
X.  had  thought  it  worth  while  to  look  for  the 
stag.  In  the  case  of  X.,  who  was  a  novice  at 
stalking,  I  was  not  surprised,  but  I  was  amazed 
that  the  stalker  had  not  done  so,  although  he  was 
young  and  not  very  experienced.  So  X.  secured 
a  good  head  after  all,  and  no  doubt  both  he  and 
the  stalker  learnt  a  lesson  which  neither  is  likely 
to  forget,  but  at  the  cost  to  X.  of  much  unneces- 
sary misery  and  humiliation  and  incidentally  to 
his  host  of  much  good  venison. 

It  is  sometimes  difficult  to  be  sure  what  is  the 
result  of  one's  shot,  and  it  is  a  great  assistance 
to  have  the  opinion  of  an  experienced  stalker 
whether  he  has  his  glass  on  the  beast  at  the 
moment  the  shot  is  fired  or  not. 

I  was  coming  back  one  evening  after  a  de- 
lightful day's  stalking  in  Glen  Carron  when  the 
stalker  Macdonell  said,  "  One  moment,  sir,  there 
is  a  stag  down  there  just  gone  out  of  sight.  If 
you  can  shoot  off  your  knee  downhill  you  will 
have  a  chance  directly."  I  sat  down  and  waited, 
and    in    a    few    minutes    the    stag    appeared,     I 


STALKING  IN  ITS  MOST  ENJOYABLE  FORM    9 

believed  I  was  steady  and  on  him  in  the  right 
place.  Du-ectly  I  fired  he  galloped  off.  "I'm 
thinking  you'd  better  shoot  again,"  said  Mac- 
donell.  "  What's  the  use,"  I  replied,  thinking  I 
had  shot  the  stag  through  the  heart.  However, 
as  I  spoke,  I  did  shoot  again  out  of  respect  to 
Macdonell,  whom  I  knew  to  be  a  very  experienced 
stalker,  and  the  stag  rolled  over  like  a  rabbit 
which  has  been  shot  in  the  right  place,  "  Now 
we  will  see,"  I  said,  "  where  the  two  bullets  went." 
"I'm  thinking,"  said  Macdonell,  "  you  missed 
him  the  first  time."  "  You  may  be  right,"  I 
replied,  "  but  I  don't  think  so  ;  one  thing  I  know, 
and  that  is  that  if  I  did  and  had  known  it,  I  should 
probably  have  missed  him  with  my  second  shot 
also."  On  examining  the  stag  we  could  only 
find  one  bullet  mark,  and  on  skinning  him  we 
found  that  one  bullet  only  had  struck  him,  and 
that  was  through  the  heart.  Macdonell  no  doubt 
thinks  to  this  day  that  I  missed  the  stag  with  my 
first  shot,  and  killed  him  with  my  second  when  he 
was  galloping  ;  but  I  still  have  my  doubts.  The 
moral  is  that  though  one  sometimes  hears  the 
unmistakable  thud  of  the  bullet  striking  the 
stag,  there  are  other  occasions  when  it  is  difficult 
to  be  certain  as  to  what  has  happened,  and  there- 


10  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

fore  it  is  always  wise  to  satisfy  one's  self  in  the 
matter  as  far  as  possible.  Still  more  is  this 
essential  when  stalking  alone.  In  stalking  alone 
there  is  this  advantage,  that  one  can  always 
secure  the  best  position  in  which  to  shoot,  whereas 
if  one  is  accompanied  by  a  stalker,  he  sometimes 
takes  that  position  himself  and  it  is  not  easy  to 
get  him  to  move  on,  or,  as  is  more  often  the  case, 
there  is  no  time  for  him  to  do  so. 

Mr.  Charles  J.  Murray  of  Loch  Carron,  to 
whose  kindness  I  am  indebted  for  many  delightful 
days'  stalking,  is  particularly  devoted  to  this  form 
of  sport.  A  few  seasons  ago  I  was  obliged  to 
come  south  before  the  end  of  the  stalking  season, 
and  received  from  him  a  letter  which  describes, 
far  better  than  I  can,  the  pleasure  of  being  out 
alone  on  the  hill. 

"  You  are  missing  the  West  Coast,"  he  wrote, 
"  at  its  {weather)  best  !  for  we  have  a  spell  of 
gloriously  fine  weather  when  the  stag  can  hear  a 
footstep  half  a  mile  off,  and  the  wind  is  so  gentle 
that  it  cannot  make  up  its  mind  which  way  to  go, 
but  strays  gently  to  and  fro  and  round  in  little 
circles,  stimulating  evil  words  among  the  stalkers. 

"  Yesterday  I  was  out  alone  and  worked  up 
to  a  Pasha  and  his  Ilarem — the  ladies  between 


STALKING  IN  ITS  MOST  ENJOYABLE  FORM  11 

him  and  me — he  just  out  of  shot  on  a  hillock 
behind  them — approach  from  the  front  impossible, 
but  just  a  chance — almost  a  certainty  with  a  fair 
breeze — from  a  rock  to  one  side,  if  he  should 
come  down  to  his  ladies  before  they  got  a  puff. 
I  risked  it  and  got  a  comfy  corner  in  the  sun  and 
waited  to  see  which  would  win — the  affectionate 
impulses  of  the  stag  or  the  more  wavering  evolu- 
tions of  the  scarcely  perceptible  puffs  of  wind, 
the  old  lady  sixty  yards  away  looking  serenely  at 
the  top  of  my  head.  Needless  to  say  that  after 
two  hours,  just  when  the  stag  stretched  one  fore 
foot  and  began  to  hum  a  love  ditty,  I  felt  a  well- 
known  cool  feeling  at  the  back  of  my  neck,  and 
the  party  adjourned  the  meeting.  Luckily  I  am 
not  bloodthirsty,  but  enjoy  being  among  deer, 
and  on  these  occasions  driving  snow  and  rain,  or 
sunshine  and  a  dry  tussock  to  curl  up  on,  make 
all  the  difference." 


-■-^'^^'^M^'f^ 


^^^ss^i^k^Mir 


^iK 


III 


A  GREAT  FISH  AND  A  GREATER 
FISHERMAN 

The  river  Wye  goes  out  to  sea 
By  stealth,  in  silent  secrecy  : 
Among  the  hills  she  winds  and  wends 
And  wanders  by  the  sombre  woods, 
And  cleaves  her  way  in  circling  bends 
Through  mountain  solitudes.^ 

Towards  the  end  of  March  1921  I  received  an 
invitation  to  fish  the  river  Wye,  whicli,  as  every 
one  knows,  is  famous  for  its  heavy  sahnon.  My 
own  rods  and  tackle  were  in  the  North  of  Scot- 

*  "  The  Death  of  the  Wye,"  Images  and  Meditations,  a  Book  of  Poems, 
by  Mary  Duclaux.     T.  Fisher  Unwin,  Ltd.,  London. 

12 


A  GREAT  FISH  AND  A  GREATER  FISHERMAN  13 

land,  and  there  was  not  sufficient  time  to  send 
for  them.  I  knew  that  in  the  spring  the  fishing 
in  this  particular  river  was  almost  entirely  by 
spinning  with  the  minnow.  I  arrived  at  my 
destination  on  Monday,  March  28,  and  had 
five  days'  fishing  before  me.  There  had  been 
a  good  deal  of  rain  before  I  arrived,  and  the  river 
was  both  too  high  and  too  much  coloured.  The 
fishing  on  my  host's  beat  had  so  far  been  very 
disappointing.  During  the  preceding  six  weeks 
the  river  had  been  fished  almost  every  day  by 
my  host  and  one  or  other  of  his  friends  ;  but 
although  hardly  any  fish  had  been  lost,  only 
five  had  been  killed,  all  with  the  minnow,  the 
largest  being  29  lb.  My  kindly  host,  who  is  a 
past  master  of  all  things  connected  with  salmon 
and  trout  fishing,  fitted  me  up  with  first-class 
equipment.  I  had  never  used  a  Nottingham  or 
Silex  reel  before,  and  it  took  me  the  greater  part 
of  my  first  day  to  acquire  the  art  of  tlirowing  the 
minnow  effectively.  For  the  next  two  days  I 
fished  with  the  minnow  from  morning  till  night 
without  getting  a  pull  or  seeing  anything.  I  have 
been  a  keen  fly-fisher  all  my  life  and  have  killed  a 
good  many  salmon  and  many  trout,  and  on  Friday 
morning,  as  the  river  had  fallen  considerably,  I 


14  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

told  my  host  that  if  I  might  do  so  I  should  like 
to  try  the  fly.  He  readily  assented,  and  said  that 
I  should  have  one  of  his  own  fly  rods,  and  before 
we  started  he  kindly  gave  me  several  salmon  flies, 
and  said  that  his  butler,  C,  who  was  an  experi- 
enced hand  at  gaffing  salmon,  should  come  with 
me.  Among  the  flies  which  my  host  had  given 
me  was  a  "  Mar  Lodge  "  (size  4/0),  and  with  this 
I  fished  all  the  morning  and  up  to  about  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  without,  however,  seeing 
or  touching  anything.  C.  said  that  he  was  afraid 
the  day  was  going  to  be  a  blank  again.  I  said  that 
I  would  like  to  try  once  more  a  particular  spot 
below  a  rock  in  the  upper  part  of  a  pool  higher  up 
the  river,  which  I  had  fished  in  the  morning  and 
which  I  thought  looked  a  very  likely  place  for 
a  salmon  to  lie.  In  order  to  fish  this  pool  it 
was  necessary  to  use  a  boat.  It  was  a  beautiful 
afternoon  and  the  sun  was  still  shining.  We 
crossed  over  the  river  at  the  bottom  of  the  pool 
and  rowed  up  on  the  other  side,  keeping  close  to 
the  bank  so  as  not  to  disturb  that  part  of  the  pool 
which  I  was  going  to  fish.  C.  worked  the  boat 
with  great  skill,  and  at  my  first  cast  I  managed 
to  place  my  fly  exactly  where  I  wished  it  to  go 
below  the  rock.     As  the  fly  swung  round  with 


A  GREAT  FISH  AND  A  GREATER  FISHERMAN  15 

the  current  I  suddenly  saw  for  a  second  a  huge 
silvery  fish  in  the  clear,  transparent  water  upon 
which  the  sun  was  shining.  At  the  same  moment 
the  line  tightened.  "  I  have  him,"  I  said,  as  the 
line  went  screeching  off  the  reel.  The  fish  ran 
straight  up-stream  for  about  ninety  yards,  and 
then  leaped  twice,  high  into  the  air.  It  was  by 
far  the  largest  salmon  I  had  ever  seen,  clean-run 
and  glittering  like  a  silver  coin  fresh  from  the 
Mint.  This  first  danger  safely  passed,  I  gradually 
persuaded  him  to  come  back  again.  C.  said, 
"  He  must  be  well  hooked,  and  he's  a  very  big 
fish.  That  fish  of  29  lb.  which  the  Major  got 
would  look  quite  small  beside  him."  For  some 
time  after  this  the  fish  moved  about  the  pool,  but 
made  no  attempt  to  run.  He  then  made  a  violent 
rush  of  about  sixty  yards,  and  lashed  about  on  the 
top  of  the  water,  once  more  showing  himself  and 
giving  us  a  fair  idea  of  his  size.  Again  I  got 
him  well  under  control,  and  for  a  considerable 
time  he  adopted  the  same  tactics  as  before, 
moving  slowly  and  steadily  backwards  and  for- 
wards at  varying  depths.  I  had  been  thinking 
for  some  time  that  perhaps  I  had  been  rather  too 
easy  with  him,  and  that  I  had  not  acted  on  the 
maxim  with  which,  I  suppose,  almost  every  salmon 


16  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

fisher  will  agree,  that  one  ought  never  to  let  a 
fish  rest,  and  that  a  big  fish  may  take  hours  to 
land  if  he  is  not  worried  enough.  The  line  and 
cast  had  been  thoroughly  tested  before  we  started, 
and  I  felt  that  I  might  depend  upon  them.  C. 
told  me  that  as  soon  as  I  had  hooked  my  fish  he 
had  looked  at  his  watch,  and  that  I  had  now  had 
him  on  for  an  hour  and  twenty  minutes.  This 
greatly  astonished  me,  as  I  had  not  realised  how 
the  time  had  gone.  But  it  was  nevertheless  the 
fact,  and  I  felt  that  we  must  do  something  to 
stir  the  fish.  We  accordingly  decided  to  move  a 
little  way  up-stream.  C.  had  hardly  begun  to 
move  the  boat  with  this  object  in  view  when  the 
salmon  suddenly  moved,  and  moved  to  some 
purpose.  Neither  I  nor  C.  had  ever  seen  any- 
thing in  the  movements  of  any  fish  to  compare 
with  the  strength  and  rapidity  of  that  rush.  The 
salmon  went  at  a  terrific  pace,  straight  up  the 
river  as  hard  as  he  could  go  for  about  110  yards, 
and  then  leaped  twice,  straight  up  into  the  air, 
about  a  couple  of  feet  above  the  surface  of  the 
water,  broadside  on,  showing  that  he  was  a 
tremendously  thick  fish.  At  the  very  moment 
he  was  in  the  air  the  reel  fell  off  the  rod,  and  at 
that   moment   I   became   conscious,   although,   of 


!h 


i'l 


A  GREAT  FISH  AND  A  GREATER  FISHERMAN  17 

course,  I  had  lowered  the  point  of  the  rod  when 
he  leaped,  that  the  great  fish  had  parted  company 
with  me  for  ever.  "  He  has  gone,"  I  said,  as 
with  a  sickening  sense  of  disappointment  I  reeled 
in  the  slack  line  in  the  faint  hope  that  he  might 
still  be  on,  having  turned  and  come  down  the 
river  again — but  no,  it  was  not  to  be,  and  the  line 
soon  came  back  to  me,  the  cast  having  been 
broken  about  a  foot  from  the  end.  C.  said  not 
a  word,  nor  did  I  for  a  time.  No  mere  words 
are  appropriate  on  such  an  occasion  and  cannot 
diminish  the  loss  of  a  fresh-run  spring  salmon, 
so  marvellously  brilliant  and  beautiful,  and  in 
this  particular  instance  probably  half  as  large 
again,  perhaps  twice  as  large,  as  the  biggest  fish 
I  have  ever  landed  during  the  time,  now  more 
than  forty  years,  that  I  have  been  a  salmon  fisher. 
Within  a  short  time  I  started  fishing  again,  but 
the  day  was  done  and  we  saw  nothing  more. 
After  the  catastrophe  I  found  that  the  reel  had 
been  loose,  and  that  the  wedges  used  to  make  it 
fit  closely  to  the  rod  had  shifted  and  finally  fallen 
out  in  consequence  of  the  rushes  made  by  the 
fish.  I  also  learnt  later  on  that  the  rod  did  not 
belong  to  my  host,  and  that  by  a  misunderstanding 
this  rod,  which  happened  not  to  have  been  taken 


18  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

down,  but  was  among  the  other  rods  ready  for  use, 
was  given  to  me.  Probably,  had  I  been  warned 
about  the  reel,  I  could  have  prevented  it  from 
falling  off,  though  whether  this  would  have  made 
any  difference  it  is  impossible  to  say,  as  many  a 
good  fish  has  broken  the  cast  by  falling  back  on  it 
after  jumping  at  the  end  of  a  long  rush,  and  the 
more  line  there  is  out  the  more  danger  of  losing 
the  fish  when  he  jumps. 

In  the  words  of  one  of  the  most  experienced 
of  fishermen,  Mr.  Horace  G.  Hutchinson  :  "  There 
is  one  antic  that  a  fish  may  perform  which  may, 
if  you  are  unlucky,  defeat  you,  however  quick  and 
skilful  you  are — that  is,  if  he  jumps  and  falls  back 
on  the  cast.  If  you  do  not  drop  the  point  of  the 
rod  so  as  to  let  the  gut  go  slack  w^hen  he  jumps, 
you  are  nearly  sure  to  be  broken  if  he  falls  back 
on  it.  If  you  drop  quickly  enough,  it  is  bad  luck 
if  you  are  broken,  but  it  is  bad  luck  which  some- 
times does  befall.  If  much  of  the  reel  line  is  in 
water,  the  drop  of  the  rod  top  does  not  communi- 
cate slackness  to  the  cast  quickly  enough  ;  the 
fish  may  come  on  to  it  when  it  is  tolerably  taut — 
result  disaster  !  " 

Being  a  Highlander  and  therefore  of  a  super- 
stitious race,  need  I  emphasise  the  fact  that  the 


A  GREAT  FISH  AND  A  GREATER  FISHERMAN  19 

day  of  this,  the  greatest,  tragedy  of  my  life  as  a 
fisherman  was  a  Friday,  and  that  Friday  the  1st 
of  April.  In  this  connection  it  is  worth  recalling 
that  no  references  to  April  Fools'  Day  have  been 
found  in  our  earlier  literature,  and  it  seems  that 
this  country  has  derived  the  fashion  from  France, 
where  April  Fools'  Day  is  a  very  ancient  institu- 
tion, and  where  the  dupe  is  known  as  "  poisson 
d'avril."  The  April  fool  in  this  story  was  the 
fisherman,  not  the  fish.  The  following  day, 
Saturday,  I  tried  to  make  the  most  of  my  last 
chance  and  fished  all  day  long,  but  without  a  sign 
of  anything.  Of  course,  there  was  a  great  dis- 
cussion as  to  the  probable  weight  of  the  fish, 
which  had  given  both  C.  and  myself  several 
opportunities  of  forming  some  estimate  on  the 
subject.  We  both  agreed  that  it  could  not  have 
been  less  than  35  lb.,  and  was  more  probably 
round  about  40  lb.  But  my  story  has  an  interest- 
ing sequel.  On  the  following  Monday  I  returned 
to  London  ;  and  on  the  Tuesday,  when  fishing  the 
pool  which  was  the  scene  of  the  catastrophe,  my 
host  made  a  discovery  which  I  can  best  relate  by 
quoting  from  a  letter  which  he  wrote  to  me  on 
the  following  day. 

"  Yesterday    afternoon,"    he    wrote,     "  when 


20  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

fishing  your  famous  pool  I  found  what  I  feel 
pretty  sure  were  the  mortal  remains  of  your  big 
fish.  He  had  fallen  a  prey  to  an  otter,  which  after 
your  long  fight  with  him  is  easy  to  understand. 
He  lay  on  a  rock  just  above  the  place  where  you 
hooked  him,  and  considerably  below  where  you 
parted  company.  A  large  '  steak  '  from  the 
middle  had  been  removed  by  his  ultimate  captor, 
but  the  head  and  tail  portions  were  there.  From 
examination  of  his  head  he  had  certainly  been 
recently  hooked  firmly  on  the  right  side  of  the 
upper  jaw.  He  was  extremely  thick,  and  must 
have  been  a  most  handsome  fish  of  at  least  35  lb. 
I  took  home  two  or  three  scales,  and  his  age 
apjDcars  to  have  been  between  four  and  five  years." 

I  subsequently  learnt  that  from  its  condition 
this  fish  had  no  doubt  been  killed  some  days  before 
it  was  found,  and  as  it  seems  highly  likely  it  was 
the  fish  that  had  defeated  me,  it  must  somehow 
or  other  have  got  rid  of  the  fly  by  rubbing  it 
against  the  rocks,  a  feat  which  is  generally  believed 
to  be  by  no  means  unusual  and  which  in  this 
instance  would,  no  doubt,  be  rendered  easier  by 
the  fact  that  the  hook  was  a  good-sized  one,  being 
about  2  in.  long. 

C,  who  was  with  my  host  at  the  time,  said  that 


A  GREAT  FISH  AND  A  GREATER  FISHERMAN  21 

he  also  felt  sure  that  it  was  the  same  fish.  So  it 
would  appear  that  the  victory  of  the  great  fish 
was  after  all  shortlived,  and  that  he  was  probably 
captured  by  a  far  greater  fisherman  than  any  mere 
mortal  man — let  alone  my  humble  self. 

It  is  a  very  interesting  fact  that  in  the  week 
before  that  in  which  I  was  fishing,  among  the 
salmon  which  were  killed  on  the  neighbouring 
beats  were  three,  each  of  which  weighed  slightly 
over  41  lb.  It  seems  not  unlikely,  therefore, 
that  my  fish  may  have  run  up  from  the  sea  in 
the  company  of  these  splendid  fish,  and  have 
been  much  the  same  weight  as  they  were. 

Notwithstanding  my  great  disappointment  I 
heartily  agree  with  the  words  of  Arthur  Hugh 
Clough  in  Peschiera  :  ^ 

'T  is  better  to  have  fought  and  lost, 
Than  never  to  have  fought  at  all. 

On  describing  my  battle  to  an  old  friend,  who 
is  himself  no  fisherman,  but  a  great  sportsman, 

^  It  is  singular  that  this  poem  was  written  and  pubUshed  in  1849, 
and  that  Tennyson's  In  Memoriam,  which  contained  the  famous  Unes  : 

"  'T  is  better  to  have  loved  and  lost. 
Than  never  to  have  loved  at  all," 

was  written  in  183-i  but  not  published  until  1850,  and  then  anonymously. 
This  is  surely  very  remarkable,  for  it  is  impossible  to  believe  that  a  man 
of  the  high  and  noble  character  of  Clough  would  have  consciously 
plagiarised  any  other  poet. 


22  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

he  replied  by  quoting  from  a  writer,  whose  name 
he  did  not  know,  the  following  lines,  which  I  had 
never  heard  before  and  the  authorship  of  which 
was  at  that  time  unknown  to  my  friend  also : 

Upon  the  river's  bank  serene 
A  fisher  sat  where  all  was  green 

And  looked  it. 
'  He  saw  when  light  was  growing  dim 

The  fish  or  else  the  fish  saw  him 

And  hooked  it. 
He  took  with  high  erected  comb 
The  fish  or  else  the  story  home 

And  cooked  it. 
Recording  angels  by  his  bed 
Weighed  all  that  he  had  done  or  said 

And  booked  it.^ 

*  After  the  publication  of  these  verses  in  the  above  article,  as  it 
originally  appeared  in  the  issue  of  Country  Life  for  August  6,  1921, 
their  authorship  was  discovered  through  the  kindness  of  some  of  the 
readers  of  that  journal  and  the  enterprise  of  its  editor.  In  a  letter  in 
Country  Life  for  August  27,  1921,  Bishop  G.  F.  Browne,  late  Lord 
Bishop  of  Bristol,  thus  describes  their  origin.  "  The  first  three  stanzas 
were  composed  at  Lowick  Rectory,  Northants,  by  the  rector,  J.  S.  Watson, 
his  daughter  Betty,  and  Dean  Ingram  of  Peterborough.  The  authors 
felt  that  there  ought  to  be  a  concluding  stanza,  ambiguously  stating  a 
final  result.  I  told  the  story  to  Father  Waggett  on  our  way  from  Bourne- 
mouth to  Clouds,  and  he  suggested  '  booked  it '  as  the  point  of  a  last 
stanza.  On  that  hint  I  wrote  the  stanza.  In  my  book  I  remark  that 
its  tendency  would  be  unjust  to  any  real  fisherman's  imaginative  powers." 


*i- 


IV 


THE   BIRDS    OF   FASTEST   FLIGHT 
IN   THE   BRITISH   ISLES 


Some  little  time  ago,  a  correspondence  appeared 
in  the  Observer^  and  the  Field"^  as  to  which  is 
the  quickest  bird  in  flight.  Various  correspond- 
ents, some  of  them  well-known  naturalists, 
writers  of  repute,  and  sportsmen  of  experience, 
expressed  their  views,  by  no  means  unanimous, 
on  the  question.  I  have  always  been  greatly 
interested  in  the  subject,  and  for  many  years  past 
in  the  North  of  Scotland  have  been  in  the  habit 
of  watching  bird  life  in  some  of  the  wildest  and 
most  inaccessible  parts  of  the  country. 

1  December  11,  18,  25,  1921. 

2  January  28,  February  4,  11,  18,  1922. 

23 


24  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

I  have  examined  the  evidence  contained  in  the 
valuable  and  interesting  correspondence  mentioned 
above,  and  have  also  obtained  all  the  information 
I  could  get  elsewhere  from  books  of  authority  and 
persons  who  have  had  special  opportunities  of 
observation.  At  the  present  day  a  valuable  and 
novel  class  of  evidence  is  available — that  of 
observers  in  aeroplanes.  Upon  all  the  material 
thus  obtained  I  have  tried  to  form  an  impartial 
opinion. 

There  appear  to  me  to  be  four  points  to  be 
borne  in  mind  before  arriving  at  any  conclusion 
as  to  which  bird  is  the  quickest  in  flight,  and  the 
maximum  speed  of  which  each  bird  is  capable. 

Emphasis  is  laid  on  the  first  three  of  the  follow- 
ing points  in  some  of  the  letters  in  the  corre- 
spondence above  referred  to,  but  I  think  that  the 
fourth  point  is  of  at  least  equal  importance. 

1.  Ground  speed  must  be  distinguished  from 
air  speed. 

2.  The  path  of  flight  must  be  horizontal. 

3.  There  must  be  something  to  show  that  the 
bird  is  flying  at  its  maximum  speed. 

4.  There  must  be  a  standard  length  of  flight 
to  which  the  test  is  to  be  applied. 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT         25 

1.  Ground  speed  must  be  distinguished  from 
air  speed. 

It  is  not  generally  realised  that  a  bird  has 
two  speeds :  its  speed  relative  to  the  ground  and 
its  speed  relative  to  the  air. 

"  Ground  speed  "  is  "  air  speed  "  as  influenced 
by  the  wind.  In  a  perfectly  still  atmosphere 
"  ground  speed  "  and  "  air  speed  "  are  the  same. 
To  quote  one  of  the  writers  in  the  Field  of 
February  11,  1922  :  "  The  wind  has  no  effect  on 
the  speed  at  w^hich  a  bird  is  capable  of  driving 
itself  through  the  air.  Take  a  parallel  case, 
substitute  for  the  bird  a  caterpillar,  and  for  the 
atmosphere  in  which  the  bird  is  flying  a  sheet  of 
paper.  The  caterpillar  can  always  crawl  at  a 
constant  speed  across  the  paper,  although  it  is 
possible  to  increase  the  relative  speed  of  a  cater- 
pillar to  the  ground  by  moving  the  sheet  of  paper." 

Or  to  put  the  same  distinction  in  the  words  of 
another  writer  in  the  same  number  of  the  Field : 
"  It  is  the  speed  of  the  object  over  the  ground  or 
still  water  that  matters  ;  and  if  the  medium  {i.e. 
air  or  water)  in  which  the  object  under  discussion 
is  either  flying  or  floating  is  also  in  movement, 
then  the  pace  over  the  ground  will  naturally  be 
correspondingly  increased  or  decreased." 

4 


26  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

Wind,  of  course,  varies  in  two  ways  (1)  direction 
and  (2)  velocity,  and  is  uniform  only  at  a  given 
height. 

The  direction  of  the  wind  must  necessarily  be 
either  along  the  line  of  flight  of  the  bird,  against 
it,  or  at  an  angle  with  it.  In  the  first  of  these 
instances  the  speed  of  the  bird  over  the  ground  is 
determined  merely  by  adding  the  velocity  of  the 
wind  to,  and  in  the  second  by  subtracting  it  from 
the  air  speed  of  the  bird,  in  the  same  way  as  a 
swimmer's  speed  is  increased  or  reduced  by  the 
speed  of  the  current.  The  third  case  is  more 
complicated,  as  in  this  calculation  allowance  must 
be  made  for  "  drift,"  i.e.  the  tendency  of  a  bird 
under  such  circumstances  to  deviate  from  its 
desired  course.  It  is,  however,  unnecessary  to 
say  anything  further  as  to  this  third  case,  as  the 
comparison  of  speeds  of  various  birds  can  only 
be  made  satisfactorily  by  ascertaining  their 
speeds  under  identical  conditions  in  horizontal 
flight. 

2.   The  path  of  flight  must  he  horizontal. 
In    the  words  ^  of  Captain  C.   F.  A.   Portal, 
D.S.O. :  "  If  any  one  has  seen  a  peregrine  stooping 

1  Field,  February  18,  1922,  p.  233. 


THE  peregrinp:  falcon. 

By  V.  R.   Balfour-Browne. 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT         27 

from  1000  feet  at  between  150  and  200  miles  per 
hour  at  a  partridge,  and  has  later  seen  the  same 
peregrine  chase  the  same  partridge  from  a  standing 
start,  he  will  appreciate  the  importance  of  con- 
sidering only  level  flight.  In  the  first  instance 
the  hawk  is  nearly  100  miles  per  hour  faster  than 
the  quarry,  in  the  second,  he  can  only  just  overtake 
it  at  all.  There  is  no  conceivable  way  of  measuring 
the  speed  of  these  downward  flights  accurately, 
but  no  one  who  has  done  any  hawking  will  deny 
that  120  miles  per  hour  is  within  the  power  of  a 
great  many  species.  When  we  come  to  consider 
level  flight,  there  is  a  very  difl*erent  story." 

3.  There  must  be  some  evidence  to  show  whether 
the  bird  is  flying  at  its  maximum  speed  or  not. 

As  was  recently  pointed  out  in  an  interesting 
article^  by  Colonel  R.  Meinertzhagen,  D.S.O. : 
"  Birds  have  two  speeds  :  a  normal  rate,  which  is 
used  for  everyday  purposes  and  also  for  migi-ation, 
and  an  accelerated  speed,  which  is  used  for  pro- 
tection, or  pursuit,  and  which  in  some  cases  nearly 
doubles  the  rate  of  their  normal  speed  ;  some  of 
the  heavier  birds  can  probably  only  accelerate  to 
a  slight  extent.     In  this  conclusion  I  am  naturally 

^  "  Velocity  of  Flight  among  Birds,"  by  Colonel  R.  Meinertzhagen, 
D.S.O.,  in  the  Ibis  for  April  1921,  pp.  237-238, 


28  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

excepting  courtship  flight,  which  is  usually  of  an 
accelerated  nature." 

To  quote  the  words  of  Major  C.  R.  E.  Rad- 
clyfFe :  ^  "  The  only  possible  test  we  can  accept 
is  where  two  birds  are  matched  one  against  the 
other,  and  we  are  certain  they  are  both  trying 
their  hardest.  No  better  test  than  this  is  the  case 
of  a  hawk  pursuing  its  quarry,  when  it  means  to 
one  of  them  its  food  and  to  the  other  its  life." 

The  same  writer  draws  attention  to  a  common 
fallacy  :  "It  is,"  he  says,^  "  purely  a  matter  of 
optical  illusion  to  imagine  that  a  smaller-sized  bird 
is  flying  faster  than  a  larger  bird  of  similar  shape 
and  make ;  for  example,  a  snipe  on  rising  ground 
seems  to  go  much  faster  than  a  woodcock,  simi- 
larly a  teal  than  a  duck,  and  possibly  this  may  be 
so  for  a  short  distance,  but  put  up  the  first  two 
together,  and  also  the  last  two,  and  let  there  be  a 
peregrine  after  them — as  I  have  seen  many  times 
— and  the  scene  is  amazing  to  a  man  who  is  not  a 
falconer,  as  the  smaller  bird  is  overhauled  first 
every  time  by  the  falcon,  and  presumably  they 
are  all  trying  their  hardest.  ...  I  have  dozens  of 
times  put  up  a  peregrine  over  ponds  and  marshes 
where  teal  and  ducks  were  sitting  together,  and 

1  Field,  February  18,  1922,  p.  231.. 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT         29 

then  flushed  the  wild  fowl  all  simultaneously.  In 
every  case  without  any  exception  the  first  bird 
overhauled  and  brought  to  the  ground  has  been  a 
teal,  and  in  the  case  of  a  long  flight  when  every 
bird  has  been  flying  for  its  life,  the  further  they 
go  the  further  the  teal  lag  behind  the  wild  ducks. 
The  same  remarks  apply  to  woodcock  and  snipe, 
to  black  game  and  grouse,  to  pheasants  and  par- 
tridges— all  of  which  I  have  flushed  simultaneously 
in  front  of  hawks." 

In  dealing  with  the  same  point  in  a  letter 
written  to  me.  Major  Radclyfl'e  makes  the  follow- 
ing interesting  observations  : 

"...  Few  people  realise  that  a  pheasant  flies 
much  faster  than  a  partridge  when  they  have  both 
been  going  a  short  distance.  If  you  flush  an  old 
cock  pheasant  and  a  covey  of  partridges  together 
in  a  big  field  of  turnips,  you  will  see  the  partridges 
are  quickest  '  off"  the  mark  '  and  away  with  a  bit 
of  a  lead,  but  the  pheasant  will  catch  them,  and 
be  first  over  the  fence  if  they  have  200  or  300  yards 
to  go. 

"  Again  take  as  an  example  a  woodcock  and  a 
snipe.  I  have  several  times  flushed  these  two 
birds  together,  and  in  no  time  the  woodcock  has 
left  the  snipe  far  behind  him,  and  yet  I  believe 


30  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

that  ninety-nine  sportsmen  out  of  a  hundred  would 
say  the  snipe  flies  faster  than  the  woodcock. 

"  I  have  seen  woodcocks  give  my  hawks  some 
great  long-distance  flights  before  they  are  over- 
taken and  turned  ;  but  a  snipe  has  no  show  at  all 
when  trying  to  keep  ahead  of  a  peregrine  or 
merlin  in  straight  flight." 

In  his  letter  to  the  Field  already  referred  to, 
Major  Radclyff'e  further  says  :  "  There  is  no  doubt 
whatever  that  the  heavier  bird  of  similar  type  is  far 
the  faster  on  the  wing  when  once  it  gets  going." 

It  was  suggested  in  one  of  the  letters  to  the 
Field  that  whilst  this  is  no  doubt  the  general 
rule  there  is  at  least  one  exception  to  it.  "If 
asked,"  said  the  writer,  "  to  quote  any  instance 
when  the  smaller  bu'd  is  faster  than  a  larger  one 
of  similar  type,  I  should  say  that  the  pochard 
(Fuligula  ferina)  is  faster  on  the  wing  than  the 
common  mallard,  as  I  have  seen  the  former  pass 
mallards  on  the  wing  when  both  have  been  flying 
before  a  falcon.  But  from  my  experience  of  over 
thirty  years  as  a  falconer,  a  naturalist,  and  a 
shooter,  I  should  say  that  the  above  case  is  one  of 
the  rare  exceptions  where  the  heaviest  bird  is  not 
the  fastest  on  the  wing  if  each  bird  is  trying  its 
hardest  and  best." 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT        31 

Colonel  Meinertzhagen,  whilst  agreeing  that 
the  heavier  bird  of  similar  type  is  the  faster  flier 
once  it  gets  going,  has  kindly  sent  me  the  follow- 
ing observations  on  the  foregoing  statements  as 
to  the  pochard  and  mallard.  "  The  common 
pochard  is  not  a  bird  of  '  similar  type  '  to  a 
mallard,  the  one  being  a  diving  duck  and  the 
other  surface-feeding.  They  differ  in  the  propor- 
tion of  wing  area  to  body  weight,  also  in  bone 
structure.  The  pochard  and  all  diving  duck, 
probably  fly  faster  than  surface  -  feeding  duck 
under  similar  conditions,  having  heavier  bodies  in 
proportion  to  the  wing  area  than  is  ever  found 
among  surface-feeding  duck.  The  eider  duck, 
which  is  even  heavier  than  the  ordinary  diving 
duck  {Nyroca),  probably  flies  faster  than  them  all 
when  once  started." 

4.  There  must  he  a  standard  length  oj  flight  to 
which  the  test  is  to  he  ajyplied. 

If  the  question  were  asked,  "  Who  is  the 
faster  runner,  A  or  B  ?  "  the  reply  would  surely 
be  "  To  what  distance  are  you  referring?  "  A 
short  or  a  long  distance  ?  Applying  the  analogy, 
it  is  obvious  that  a  bird  might  be  much  faster 
than   another   for   a    short    distance,    but    if  the 


32  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

flight  has  to  be  prolonged,  may  not  have  the 
lasting  powers  of  another  bird,  and  therefore 
would  be  beaten  on  the  longer  course. 

It  seems  likely  that  the  fact  of  not  considering 
one  or  other  of  these  points  may  account  for  the 
difference  in  regard  to  some  of  the  views  held  by 
observers  of  experience.  For  instance,  may  it 
not  account  for  the  fact  that  there  is  such  a 
marked  difference  of  opinion  as  to  whether  the 
peregrine  is  faster  than  the  golden  plover  ?  May 
it  not  be  true  that  for  a  short  distance  the  latter 
bird  may  be  the  faster  flier,  but  that  in  consequence 
of  its  lack  of  staying  power  it  is  overtaken  before 
it  goes  half  a  mile  unless  it  can  elude  its  pursuer 
by  twists  and  turns.  In  this  connection  it  is 
worth  recalling  the  experiences  of  that  acute 
and  accurate  observer  Charles  St.  John^:  "The 
golden  plover,"  he  writes,  "  is  a  favourite  prey, 
and  affords  the  hawk  a  severe  chace  before  he  is 
caught.  I  have  seen  a  pursuit  of  this  kind  last 
for  nearly  ten  minutes — the  plover  turning  and 
doubling  like  a  hare  before  greyhounds,  at  one 
moment  darting  like  an  arrow  into  the  air,  high 
above  the  falcon's  head  ;  at  the  next  sweeping 
round  some  bush  or  headland — but  in  vain.     The 

^  Wild  Sports  of  the  Highlands,  chap.  x.  p.  135. 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT        33 

hawk  with  steady  relentless  flight,  without  seem- 
ing to  hurry  himself,  never  gives  up  the  chace 
till  the  poor  plover,  seemingly  quite  exhausted, 
slackens  her  pace,  and  is  cavight  by  the  hawk's 
talons  in  mid-air  and  carried  off  to  a  convenient 
hillock  or  stone  to  be  quietly  devoured." 

Colonel  Meinertzhagen  has  been  so  kind  as  to 
consider  the  observations  I  have  made  above,  and 
writes  : 

"  I  should  doubt  whether  the  golden  plover 
has  less  staying  power  than  the  peregrine.  The 
former  migrates  long  distances  (thousands  of  miles, 
in  the  case  of  the  American  golden  plover,  a  bird 
almost  identical  with  ours,  which  goes  from 
Labrador  to  Brazil  by  sea),  whereas  the  peregrine 
is  nowhere  believed  to  be  a  regular  or  persistent 
migrant  over  long  distances.  It  is  more  probable 
that  the  peregrine  is  a  faster  bird  than  the  golden 
plover  and  that  the  latter  becomes  exhausted  by 
continued  acceleration  and  fear,  whereas  the  pere- 
grine is  accustomed  to  long  periods  of  accelerated 
flight  and  is  stimulated  by  hunger." 

Again  in  reference  to  the  difference  of  opinion 
as  to  whether  the  teal  is  faster  than  the  mallard, 
may  it  not  be  possible  that  both  views  may  be 
correct  ?   in  other  words,  that  it  depends  upon  the 


34  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

length  of  flight  which  the  wi'iter  is  considering. 
It  may  be  noticed  that  Major  Radclyffe  in  the 
passage  which  I  have  quoted  above  (p.  28)  seems 
to  consider  it  may  be  possible  that  for  a  short 
distance  the  teal  may  be  faster  than  the  mallard, 
though  he  has  no  doubt  that  the  latter  bird  will 
very  soon  overtake  the  former. 

The  falconer  has  certainly  more  and  better 
opportunities  of  seeing  birds  flying  at  their 
maximum  rate  of  speed  than  any  one  else.  "  He 
also  has,"  to  use  Captain  Portal's  words,  "  the 
advantage  of  possessing  in  his  trained  hawk  a 
known  quantity  with  which  to  compare  the 
performances  of  other  birds." 

Captain  Portal  has  flown  hawks  at  many  diff'er- 
ent  kinds  of  birds  during  the  last  fifteen  years, 
and  has  made  certain  estimates  which  have  been 
arrived  at  after  a  great  deal  of  comparison  and 
analysis  of  data  obtained  while  hawking,  shooting, 
flying  in  aeroplanes,  travelling  in  cars  and  trains, 
and  walking  in  the  country.  He  says  :^-"  My 
figures  cannot  be  correct  for  every  member  of 
each  species,  as  I  have  seen  one  partridge  in  an 
October  covey  fly  quite  15  per  cent  faster  than  any 
of  its  companions  when  all  were  at  full  speed.     All 

1  Field,  February  18,  1922,  pp.  233-234. 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT 


35 


I  have  tried  to  do  is  to  strike  an  average  for  the 
species,  the  speed  given  being  the  maximum  pace 
at  which  the  bird  can  cover  the  gi'ound  in  level 
flight  through  still  air." 

The  speeds  given  for  the  peregrine  and  merlin 
are  those  of  good  trained  birds  ;  the  wild  ones  are 
faster.     Here  are  the  figures  : 


Golden  Plover 
Teal  and  Blackcock 

.     70  miles 
.     68       „ 

per  hour 

55 

Peregrine         .          .          .          . 

Pheasant  and  Grouse 

Mallard 

Merlin  and  Blue  Rock 

.     62 
.     60 
.     58 
.      55 

j5 
}> 
55 
55 

55 
55 
55 
55 

Partridge 
Green  Plover"^ 
Jackdaw         j 

.      53 
.     48 

55 

55 

55 
55 

Wood  Pigeon 

Starling 

Kestrel 

.     45 

.      44 
.      43 

55 
55 
55 

55 
55 
55 

Rook       . 
Landrail 

.      40 
.      35 

55 
55 

5> 
55 

The  speed  attained  by  golden  plover  when 
pressed  has  been  estimated  by  airmen  at  over 
60  rniles  per  hour.^ 

Colonel  R.  Meinertzhagen,  from  whom  I  have 
also  quoted  above,  states  that  he  finds,  "  after 
eliminating  abnormal  conditions  and  observations 
based  on  meagre  evidence,  that  the  normal  and 

1  76w,  April  1921,  p.  234. 


36  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

migratory  flight  in  miles  per  hour  (ground  speed) 
is  as  follows  : 


Ducks     . 

.     44-59 

Geese 

.     42-55 

Waders  . 

.     34-51 

(but  mostly  from  40  to  51) 

Starlings 

.     38-49 

Falcons  . 

.     40-48 

Corvidae 

.     31-45 

Tame  Pigeons 

.      30-36 

The  smaller  Passeres 

.      20-37" 

Amongst  the  birds  which  are  claimed  by 
different  high  authorities  to  be  the  fastest  British 
birds  are  the  swift,  the  peregi'ine,  the  golden 
plover,  the  teal,  the  wild  duck,  and  the  curlew. 

It  is  curious  that  in  the  various  controversies 
on  the  subject  no  one  appears  to  have  contended 
that  the  golden  eagle  may  possibly  be  the  fastest 
flier  amongst  British  birds.  This  may  be  because, 
except  in  certain  parts  of  the  country,  the  eagle 
is  never  seen,  and  there  is  necessarily  very  little 
opportunity  of  comparing  his  speed  with  that  of 
other  birds.  In  particular  the  falconer,  whose 
opportunities  of  comparing  the  speed  of  birds  are, 
as  I  have  already  stated,  greater  than  those  of  any 
other  class  of  men,  has  no  opportunities  in  the 
case  of  the  eagle.  Moreover,  the  flight  of  the 
eagle,  like  that  of  some  of  the  fastest  flying  birds, 


"W^' 


y 


o     < 

'—I  K 

b    S. 


X     < 


—       o 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT         37 

for  instance,  the  blackcock,  is  very  deceptive. 
He  is  in  fact  flying  much  faster  than  he  appears 
to  be — "  The  eagle's  flight,  when  passing  from 
one  point  to  another,  is  peculiarly  expressive  of 
strength  and  vigour.  He  wends  his  way  with 
deliberate  strong  strokes  of  his  powerful  wing, 
every  stroke  apparently  drawing  him  on  a  consider- 
able distance,  and  in  this  manner  advancing  through 
the  air  as  rapidly  as  the  pigeon  or  any  other  bird 
which  may  appear  to  fly  much  more  quickly."  ^ 

The  answer  to  the  question,  Which  of  the  two 
birds,  the  eagle  or  the  peregrine,  is  the  faster  flier, 
must  even  on  a  horizontal  flight  be  a  matter  of 
pure  conjecture.  On  the  one  hand,  the  peregrine 
has  the  advantage  of  pointed  wings  which  make 
for  increased  wing  power  and  speed,  whilst  the 
eagle's  wings  are  rounded.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  is  a  great  similarity  between  the  general 
build  and  structure  of  the  two  birds,  and  there 
is  the  fact  emphasised  by  Major  Radclyfl^e  in  the 
letters  from  which  I  have  quoted  above,  that,  as 
between  two  birds  of  difl'erent  size  but  of  similar 
shape  and  make,  the  larger  and  heavier  bird  will 
almost  invariably  fly  faster  than  the  smaller  and 

^   Wild  Sports  and  Natural  History  of  the  Highlands,  by  Charles 
St.  John,  ch.  X.  p.  131. 


38  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

lighter  one  once  the  former  really  gets  going. 
It  is,  of  course,  true  that  the  peregrine  is  much 
quicker  in  its  movements  and  more  agile  than  the 
eagle.  It  is  constantly  under  the  necessity  of 
flying  at  its  fastest  (which  the  eagle  is  not)  in 
order  to  secure  its  food  ;  in  other  words,  to  use 
the  language  of  a  stalker  in  discussing  this 
question  with  me  :  "  The  peregrine  requires  a 
warm  diet,  and  lives  on  its  prey.  The  eagle,  on 
the  other  hand,  will  eat  carrion."  The  peregrine 
is  probably  quicker  off  the  mark  than  the  eagle, 
but  this  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  he  flies 
more  quickly  than  the  eagle  once  the  latter  gets 
going.  Stalkers  have  unusual  opportunities  of 
seeing  these  two  birds  in  flight,  and  almost  all 
those  with  whom  I  have  discussed  this  question 
believe  that  on  a  horizontal  flight  the  peregrine 
is  faster  than  the  eagle.  This  in  my  opinion  is 
probably  the  correct  view. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  Northern 
falcons,  or,  as  they  are  generally  called,  the 
gyrfalcons,  are  entitled  to  rank  as  British  birds, 
although  they  are  rare  visitors  to  these  Isles. 
They  are  (1)  the  gyrfalcon  or  Norwegian  variety 
{Falco  gyrfalco),  (2)  the  Iceland  falcon  {Falco 
islandus),  (3)  the  Greenland  falcon  {Falco  candi- 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT        39 

cans).  The  gyrfalcon  is  a  very  rare  visitor  here, 
two  recorded  specimens  only  having  been  ob- 
tained here  and  one  of  these  is  doubtful.  The 
Iceland  falcon  is  a  rare  visitor  also,  although 
identified  examples  have  been  obtained  here  from 
time  to  time.  The  Greenland  falcon  is  an  irregular 
winter  and  spring  visitor,  but  there  are  more 
recorded  instances  of  this  species  than  in  the  case 
of  the  Iceland  falcon.  The  former  bird,  the 
prevailing  ground  colour  of  which  is  white,  is  the 
most  beautiful  of  all  birds  of  prey.  By  some 
authorities  it  is  considered  merely  a  race  of  the 
Iceland  falcon,  which  it  resembles  in  size  and 
habits.  The  eggs  of  the  two  birds  resemble  one 
another.  All  these  Northern  falcons  are  about 
the  same  size  and  larger  than,  though  very 
similar  in  structure  to,  the  peregrine  falcon. 
Speaking  generally,  the  difference  in  length  is 
about  5  inches,  in  wing  2  inches.  They  have 
been  very  highly  valued  in  Europe  for  hawking, 
and,  as  would  be  expected  from  their  superior 
size  and  similar  structure,  are  undoubtedly  faster 
than  peregrines. 

Writing    in    the    Field   for    March    15,    1923, 
Major  Radclyffe  says  :  ^ 

1  See  also  the  letter  of  Mr,  H.  G.  Hurrell  in  the  Field  for  March  8,  1923. 


40  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

"  All  the  gyrfalcons  are  much  faster  on  the 
wing  than  peregrines,  and  having  trained  and 
flown  both  species  of  these  falcons  for  many  years 
I  have  been  enabled  to  prove  this  beyond  doubt." 

The  swift  has  still  to  be  considered.  There 
are  three  species  of  swifts  which  rank  as  British 
birds  :  the  common  swift  (Cypselus  apus),  the 
Alpine  swift  {Cypselus  melha),  and  the  spine- 
tailed  or  needle- tailed  swift  {Acanthyllis  caudacuta 
or  Chaetura  caudacuta  caudacuta).  The  Alpine 
swift  is  a  rare  visitor  here,  only  about  thirty 
having  been  satisfactorily  identified  at  different 
times  from  April  to  October  in  different  parts 
of  these  islands,  but  chiefly  in  the  southern  part 
of  England.  It  breeds  in  mountains  throughout 
Central  Europe,  and  eastwards  to  India.  The  spine- 
tailed  swift  is  even  a  rarer  visitor  here,  only  two  re- 
corded instances  of  specimens  having  been  obtained 
— one  in  Essex  in  1846  and  one  (said  to  have  been 
in  company  with  another)  in  Hampshire  in  1879. 
It  breeds  in  the  mountains  of  North-eastern  Asia, 
and  in  winter  goes  as  far  south  as  Australia. 

Swifts  are  perhaps  the  most  powerfully  winged, 
in  proportion  to  their  weight,  of  all  British  birds. 
Their  form  is  that  which  has  been  found  to 
make  the  fastest  sailing  vessel — fuU  forwards  and 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT        41 

lengthened,  and  tapering  backwards.  The  diffi- 
culty in  regard  to  these  birds,  and  particularly  in 
regard  to  the  Alpine  swift  and  the  spine-tailed 
swift,  is  to  obtain  the  necessary  opportunities  and 
conditions  for  comparing  their  maximum  speed 
with  that  of  other  very  fast  birds.  It  is  difficult 
to  realise  merely  from  a  consideration  of  the 
description  and  measurements  of  these  three 
swifts  in  the  authoritative  works  of  ornithologists 
how  much  larger  the  Alpine  swift  and  spine- 
tailed  swift  are  than  the  common  swift.  I  have 
had  opportunities  of  handling  and  examining  the 
stuffed  specimens  of  these  birds  in  the  British 
Museum  (Natural  History)  at  South  Kensington, 
and  should  like  to  acknowledge  here  the  courtesy 
and  assistance  given  to  me  at  the  Museum  by 
Mr.  W.  P.  Pycraft,  Dr.  P.  R.  Lowe,  and 
Mr.  N.  B.  Kinnear. 

The  actual  measurements  of  the  three  birds  are 
as  follows  : 

Length.  Wing. 

Common  Swift  .  .  .     6-75  inches      6-8    inches 

Alpine  Swift      ....     8  „  8-45       „ 

Needle-tailed  S\\'ift    ...     8  „  8-1        „ 

It  is  not  generally  realised  that  the  common 
swift,  so  well  known  in  this  country,  which  looks 
so  imposing  in  flight  as  it  glides  overhead  with 

6 


42  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

wings  extended,  is  hardly  so  large,  when  plucked, 
as  a  man's  thumb-joint  and  weighs  slightly  over 
half  an  ounce. 

Bearing  in  mind  that  as  between  two  birds  of 
the  same  build  and  structure  the  larger  will,  when 
it  gets  going,  fly  faster  than  the  smaller  one,  it 
would  naturally  be  expected,  as  is  the  undoubted 
fact,  that  the  Alpine  swift  and  spine- tailed  swift 
are  faster  fliers  than  the  common  swift. 

The  falconer  has  in  the  case  of  the  swift  very 
little  opportunity  of  comparing  its  speed  with  that 
of  the  peregrine.  This  is  partly  because  the 
peregrine,  whether  it  be  the  falcon  (the  female 
bird)  or  the  tiercel  (the  male  bird),  will  probably 
not  attempt  to  kill  the  swift,  it  being  too  small 
a  prey.  There  is  the  further  difficulty  that  the 
swift  rarely  continues  on  a  level  flight. 

I  have  been  so  fortunate  as  to  obtain  the  views 
of  several  well-known  authorities  on  this  difficult 
question — the  comparative  maximum  speed  of  the 
swift  and  the  peregrine. 

Colonel  Meinertzhagen  says  : 

"  I  should  certainly  say  that  the  swift  is  the 
fastest  British  bird,  both  in  its  normal  speed  and 
accelerated.  But  any  of  the  falcons  could  catch 
it,  if  caught  unawares,  by  stooping,  or  perhaps  two 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT        43 

hunting  together.  If  the  swift  had,  say,  ten 
seconds'  warning, ^  I  do  not  believe  any  falcon 
could  touch  it.  As  regards  endurance,  those 
birds  with  the  greatest  endurance  are  the  swifts, 
swallows,  petrels,  and  gulls.  Swifts  are  probably 
endowed  with  the  greatest  powers,  being  denied 
by  nature  the  advantages  of  perching,  alighting 
on  water,  or  resting  on  the  ground.  I  have 
recently  been  studying  the  power  of  flight  of 
various  groups  of  birds,  and  find  that  the  wings 
of  the  swift  and  petrel  groups  have  wing  outlines 
best  suited  for  both  endurance  and  speed.  The 
falcon  has  a  wing  intended  for  short  rapid  flights 
and  not  for  endurance. 

•'  You  have  doubtless  seen  falcons  huntingf. 
When  they  set  out  on  a  regular  hunt  they  are  not 
usually  much  faster  than  their  quarry,  unless  it  is 
some  unfortunate  non-game  bird,  and  they  only 
gradually  overtake  it.  But  I  think  a  falcon  usually 
makes  full  use  of  surprise  and  force  of  gravity. 
If  these  fail,  he  often  abandons  the  chase,  recog- 
nising that  wearing  a  bird  like  a  golden  plover  or 
teal  dow^n  by  sheer  endurance  and  honest  straight- 
forward flying  is  a  troublesome  and  not  always 
successful  task." 

^  This  is  a  very  considerable  warning. — H.  F. 


44  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

Major  C.  R.  E.  RadclyfFe  writes  : 

"  The  point  you  raise  re  the  relative  speed  of 
swifts  and  other  birds  is  a  difficult  one  to 
decide. 

"  I  have,  however,  a  strong  recollection  of  a 
brother  falconer  (I  cannot  remember  who  it  was) 
telling  me  that  his  trained  merlins  could  easily 
overhaul  a  swift,  and  he  told  me  that  once  or 
twice  they  had  killed  them.  But  this  was  many 
years  ago,  and  I  am  not  able  to  remember  all  the 
facts. 

"  I  have  often  stood  on  the  bridges  here  and 
watched  swifts  passing  in  hundreds  close  past  me. 
They  appear  to  be  moving  very  fast  when  hawking 
after  flies  near  the  surface  of  a  river. 

"  There  is  a  long  stretch  of  broad  water  in  the 
river  in  front  of  my  house  here,  and  often  there 
are  hundreds  of  swifts  flying  up  and  down  it. 
They  go  about  half  a  mile  dead  straight  and  then 
turn  back  over  this  stretch  of  the  river. 

"  I  have  flown  fast  carrier  pigeons  along  this 
same  bit  of  water,  and  they  seem  to  do  it  in  less 
time  than  the  swifts.  Only  last  summer,  at  my 
place  in  Scotland,  I  was  sitting  on  the  banks  of 
the  river  watching  some  swifts,  when  a  pair  of 
blue  rock  pigeons  came  from  their  nest  in  the 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT         45 

cliff,  going  out  to  feed,  and  they  went  clean  past 
the  swifts  going  in  the  same  direction. 

"  Of  course  presumably  the  pigeons  were  in  a 
hurry  and  the  swifts  were  not,  and  unless  we  are 
certain  that  both  birds  are  trying  their  hardest, 
you  cannot  accept  these  things  as  a  test  of  speed. 

"  If  I  were  asked  to  guess  roughly  at  the  six 
fastest  flying  birds  in  the  British  Isles,  I  should 
place  them  as  follows  : 

1.  The  Peregrine, 

2.  The  Hobby, 

3.  The  Merlin, 

4.  The  Golden  Plover, 

5.  The  Pochard, 

6.  The  Blue  Rock  Pigeon, 

and  the  fastest  game  bird  is  undoubtedly  the 
blackcock.  I  do  not  know,  however,  if  a  caper- 
cailzie would  not  beat  him  if  you  could  get  them 
both  to  take  a  long  flight  across  the  open,  because, 
generally  speaking,  in  the  case  of  birds  of  similar 
shape  and  species,  the  heaviest  bird  is  the  fastest 
flying  one." 

Captain  G.  S.  Blaine,  another  falconer  of  long 
and  varied  experience,  has  also  been  so  kind  as  to 
give  me  his  opinion  on  this  question.     He  writes  : 


46  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

"  I  cannot  say  whether  a  peregrine  falcon  could 
overtake  and  kill  a  swift,  but  I  do  not  think  it 
would  ever  attempt  the  feat.  Falcons  do  not, 
as  a  rule,  attack  small  birds.  The  male  or  tiercel 
will  sometimes  stoop  at  them,  but  more  in  play 
than  in  earnest.  The  female,  I  should  think, 
would  never  attempt  to  catch  anything  smaller 
than  a  thrush  or  starling. 

"It  is  very  difficult  to  estimate  the  relative 
speed  of  different  birds.  To  do  so,  one  would 
have  to  judge  correctly  of  the  time  taken  in  passing 
a  measured  distance  on  a  straight  course.  Very 
few  birds,  especially  swifts,  fly  absolutely  straight 
ahead. 

"  A  hobby  has  been  known  to  catch  swifts  and 
swallows,  and  possibly  a  merlin  would  do  the 
same. 

"  A  peregrine  can  fly  faster  than  a  merlin,  but 
it  would  not  be  so  quick  in  turning  and  following 
a  bird. 

"  I  think  a  peregrine  can  fly  faster  than  a  teal 
or  golden  plover,  though,  as  you  observe,  the 
latter  are  quicker  off*  the  mark." 

There  are  very  few  recorded  instances,  as  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain,  in  which  a  hawk 
has  killed  the  common  swift.     In  two  of  these 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT        47 

there  was  no  evidenee  as  to  whether  the  hawk  had 
not  taken  the  swift  by  surprise.  But  there  is  at 
least  one  recorded  instance  in  which  a  swift  has 
been  killed  by  a  hobby  in  fair  flight.  This  is  to 
be  found  in  that  delightful  book,  Field  Studies 
of  some  Rarer  British  Birds,^  by  Mr.  William 
Walpole  Bond,  The  description  of  the  race  is  so 
vivid  that,  with  the  author's  kind  permission,  I 
reproduce  it  here. 

"  On  June  14,  1907,  as  I  lay  in  a  spacious 
clearing  of  a  big  Sussex  woodland,  a  sudden 
swirl  of  wings  gave  me  instant  pause  in  my 
meditations.  Looking  up,  my  eyes  were  held 
by  a  swift  coasting  earthwards  in  frantic  haste, 
hotly  pursued  by  a  hobby  not  many  yards  in  his 
wake.  I  literally  held  my  breath  with  excitement, 
for  here  was  an  occurrence  of  dreamland  only. 
Speeding  on  about  a  level  with  the  tree  -  tops 
both  birds  measure  the  length  of  the  long  glade 
in  fractional  time,  and  the  hawk  gains  almost 
imperceptibly. 

"  Then  the  pursued  makes  a  mighty  effort  ; 
he  rises  gamely,  even  slightly  increasing  his  lead. 
Indeed  it  seemed  he  might  shake  off  his  deadly 
courser.     Alas,  my  friend,  it  is  to  no  purpose  ; 

1  Pp.  258-259  (Witherby  &  Co.,  London,  1914). 


48  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

the  hobby  has  responded  to  your  challenge,  and 
now  exhibits  speed  for  which  —  glorious  flier 
though  he  be — I  should  never  have  given  him 
credit.  Mounting  with  ease  above  his  prospective 
prey,  the  lithe  hawk  compels  him  to  describe  an 
arc  and  once  again  to  start  a  life — or  death — 
struggle  in  a  headlong  slant  across  the  clearing. 
That  flight  is  his  last — the  swift  has  shot  his  bolt. 
Now  inches  only  separate  the  birds,  you  could 
cover  both  with  a  very  large  handkerchief.  Next 
instant  the  hawk  rises  straight  and  stoops  strongly, 
pursuer  and  pursued  become  one.  Binding  to 
his  quarry  the  hawk  is  away  over  the  trees  at  my 
back  without  so  much  as  the  most  momentary 
pause  in  the  continuation  of  his  eminently  success- 
ful '  shikar.'  Indeed,  this  continuity  of  action 
was  possibly  the  most  pleasing  part  of  a  praise- 
worthy performance,  since  you  might  reasonably 
have  expected  a  break — however  trivial — after 
what  must  have  been  a  long  and  arduous  chase. 
As  a  fact,  the  death-stroke  was  so  featly  and 
rapidly  administered  that,  except  that  where  a 
moment  before  there  had  been  two  birds  there 
was  now  only  one,  and  that  a  muffled  clap  and  a 
few  small  dusky  feathers  twirling  aimlessly  in  the 
summer  breeze  suggested  some  sort  of  untoward 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT         49 

happening,  it  was  difficult  to  realise  that  anything 
unusual  had  taken  place. 

"  I  have  seen  the  irresistible  death-stoop  of  the 
peregrine,  the  lightning  rush  of  the  tiny  merlin, 
I  have  watched  the  earthward  plunge  after  prey  of 
buzzard,  eagle,  kite,  and  harrier  ;  I  have  revelled 
in  the  agile  snatch  of  the  sparrow-hawk,  in  the 
silent  hovering  of  the  kestrel ;  and  all  have  I 
enjoyed.  Here  was  something  quite  different 
and  even  far  better.  Never  have  I  seen  skill  so 
superb  as  was  displayed  by  that  hobby." 

It  would  therefore  seem  that  the  hobby, 
which  is  a  peregrine  in  miniature,  flies  faster 
than  the  common  swift  even  on  a  horizontal 
flight,  but  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  in  both  stoops 
referred  to  in  this  delightful  description,  the 
hobby  gained  by  reason  of  gravity.  True,  he 
also  gained  altitude,  but  this  may  have  been  better 
manoeuvring  for  position  and  not  necessarily  a 
greater  speed.  As  the  peregrine  flies  faster  than 
the  hobby,  being  a  bird  of  the  same  structure  but 
larger,  the  peregrine  could  no  doubt  overtake  and 
kill  the  common  swift  if  it  would  take  the  trouble 
to  pursue  so  small  a  bird. 

Next,  as  to  the  Alpine  swift.  This  bird  is 
much  larger  than  the  common  swift — in  length 


50  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

8  inches  as  compared  with  6-75  inches — whilst 
their  wings  are  8-45  inches  and  6-8  inches  respect- 
ively, and  as  the  two  birds  are  of  the  same 
structure,  one  would  naturally  expect  that  the 
Alpine  swift  would  be  much  the  faster  flier.  The 
flight  of  the  Alpine  swift,  like  that  of  the  black- 
cock, which  is  probably  the  fastest  flier  amongst 
game  birds  with  the  possible  exception  of  the 
capercailzie,  is  very  deceptive. 

Colonel  JNIeinertzhagen,  in  the  article  already 
mentioned,  describes  some  observations  from  an 
aeroplane  in  regard  to  the  flight  of  a  large  flock  of 
common  swifts  feeding  at  an  altitude  of  6000  feet 
over  Mosul  in  Mesopotamia.  He  describes  how 
they  circled  round  the  aeroplane,  which  was  flying 
at  68  miles  an  hour,  and  easily  overtook  it.  In 
commenting  on  this  case  he  says  :  "  The  case  of 
the  Mosul  swifts  is  interesting.  The  birds  were 
probably  not  on  passage  but  simply  feeding.  It 
is  known  that  swifts  travel  great  distances  in 
search  of  food  and  ascend  great  altitudes. 

*'  In  the  Middle  Atlas  of  Morocco,  in  the  Hima- 
layas, in  Crete,  and  Palestine,  4000  or  5000  feet 
and  50  miles  or  so  in  distance  seems  nothing  to 
these  incomparable  fliers.  I  have  had  splendid 
opportunities  of  observing  the  Alpine,  common. 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT         51 

and  spine-tailed  swifts  {Chaetura),  and  it  has  been 
a  great  disappointment  to  me  that  I  have  never 
been  able  to  get  a  satisfactory  estimate  of  their 
rate  of  flight,  as  they  never  continue  on  a  level 
course.     On  a  small  island  on  the  coast  of  Crete 
I  was  recently  given  a  good  exhibition  of  what  an 
Alpine  swift  can  do.     I  was  watching  some  of 
these  birds  feeding  round  cliffs  in  which  several 
pairs  of  Eleonora's  falcons  were  about  to  breed. 
Now,  this  delightful  falcon  is  no  mean  flier,  and 
as    these    swifts    passed   their   clifl*,    the    falcons 
would  come  out  against  them  like  rockets.     The 
swifts  would  accelerate  and  would  seem  to  be  out 
of  sight  before  the  falcons  were  well  on  their  way. 
So   confident  were  the   swifts   in   their   superior 
speed,   that   every   time   they   circled  round   the 
island   they  never   failed   to  '  draw  '  the  falcons, 
and  seemed  to  be  playing  with  them.     I  may  add 
that  these  same  falcons  have  little  difficulty  in 
overhauling   and   striking    a    rock -pigeon — itself 
no  mean  performer.     I  have  also  seen  on  record 
the  case  of  falcons  and  swifts  somewhere  in  India, 
where  the  former  failed  time  after  time  to  come 
up   with   his    quarry.     I,    unfortunately,    cannot 
trace  the  reference. 

**I  hesitate  even  to  guess  at  the  speed  to  which  a 


52  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

swift  can  attain  when  the  necessity  arises,  but  the 
main  point  is  that  this,  the  fastest  of  birds,  can  in- 
crease his  feeding  speed  of,  say,  70  miles  per  hour,  to 
a  velocity  which  must  exceed  100  miles  per  hour." 

In  the  tables  given  above  ^  Colonel  Meinertz- 
hagen  estimates  the  speed  of  the  normal  and 
migratory  rate  of  flight  of  falcons  at  40  to  48 
miles  an  hour,  whilst  Captain  Portal  estimates 
the  maximum  speed  of  the  peregrine  falcon  in 
level  flight  through  still  air  at  62  miles  an  hour. 
Captain  Portal  adds  that  the  speed  given  is  for 
a  good  trained  bird,  and  that  a  wild  bird  is  faster. 

In  view  of  Colonel  Meinertzhagen's  observa- 
tions from  his  aeroplane  and  the  figures  given 
above,  it  would  appear  to  be  certain  that  the 
Alpine  swift  is  faster  than  the  peregrine  falcon  in 
horizontal  flight. 

We  have  now  to  consider  the  speed  of  the 
spine-tailed  or  needle-tailed  swift.  There  seems  to 
be  no  doubt  that  this  bird  is  a  much  faster  flier 
than  the  Alpine  swift,  though  at  first  sight  and 
without  a  careful  examination  of  the  skeletons,  it  is 
difficult  to  state  why  this  should  be  so.  I  have  com- 
pared various  specimens  of  the  two  birds,  and  there 
appears  to  be  little  diff'erence  in  their  size.  Colonel 
Meinertzhagen,  who  has  been  so  kind  as  to  discuss 

1  Pp.  35,  36. 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT        53 

the  subject  with  me,  agrees  that  the  spine- tailed 
swift  is  the  faster  flier,  and  tells  me  that  he  thinks 
it  is  probably  the  heavier  bird  of  the  two,  and  that 
this  may  account  for  its  greater  rapidity  of  flight. 

The  wing  of  the  Alpine  swift  is  8-45  inches, 
that  of  the  spine-tailed  swift  is  81  inches.  The 
length  of  both  birds  is  8  inches,^  although  Dresser  ^ 
gives  the  total  length  as  8-5  and  that  of  the 
spine-tailed  swift  as  8-1  inches. 

The  genus  Chaetura,  to  which  the  needle- 
tailed  swift  belongs,  is  easily  distinguishable  from 
the  genus  Apus  (to  which  the  common  swift  and 
Alpine  swift  belong)  by  the  wedge-shaped  tail  in 
which  the  shafts  of  the  feathers  are  longer  than 
the  webs  and  protrude  like  spines.  The  tail  in 
the  only  species  {Chaetura  caudacuta  caudacuta) 
occurring  in  the  British  Isles,  compared  with  that 
of  the  Alpine  swift,  is  very  short.  It  is  almost 
square,  and  has  ten  feathers,  which  are  very  stiff 
and  the  shafts  of  which  project  4-6  mm.  (-156- 
•234  inch)  beyond  the  web  in  a  stiff  point  like  that 
of  a  needle  or  spine. ^ 

^  Manual  of  British  Birds,  by  Howard  Saunders,  2nd  ed.  (Gurney 
&  Jackson,  London),  pp.  264,  266. 

*  History  of  the  Birds  of  Europe,  by  Henry  E.  Dresser,  F.L.S.,  F.Z.S. 
(1871-1881),  vol.  iv.  p.  617. 

^  A  Practical  Handbook  of  British  Birds,  edited  by  H.  F.  Witherby, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  7,  9.     Witherby  &  Co.,  London,  1920. 


54  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

The  shafts  of  the  primaries  are  very  strong 
and  the  wings  very  long.  Gould  ^  says,  in  refer- 
ence to  the  spine- tailed  swift,  in  a  passage  which 
is  quoted  in  Seebohm  :  ^  "  The  keel  or  breast  bone 
of  this  species  is  more  than  ordinarily  deep  and 
the  pectoral  muscles  more  developed  than  in  any 
of  its  weight  with  which  I  am  acquainted." 
Probably  the  last-mentioned  facts  largely  account 
for  its  superiority  in  speed  over  the  Alpine  swift. 

In  an  article  entitled  "  The  Twelve  Swiftest 
Birds  of  Australia,"  ^  in  which  Mr.  E.  S.  Sovenson 
gives  the  views  of  himself  and  various  friends  of 
his  as  to  the  relative  speed  of  Australian  birds,  he 
says  that  after  long  observation  he  and  they  have 
no  hesitation  in  stating  that  the  spine-tailed 
swift  is  the  swiftest  Australian  bird,  and  states 
that  its  speed  has  been  computed  at  180  miles 
an  hour. 

"  Besides  its  swiftness,"  he  writes,  "it  is 
almost  tireless  of  wing,  being  second  only  in  that 
respect  to  the  frigate  bird,  the  bu'd  of  eternal 
flight.     Both   have   very   long   wings   in   relation 

*  Handbook  to  the  Birds  of  Australia,  by  John  Gould,  F.R.S.  (I860), 
vol.  i.  p.  104.     London. 

»  Vol.  ii.  p.  305,  Porter,  6  Tenterden  Street,  W. ;  Dulau  &  Co.,  Soho 
Square,  W.,  1884. 

*  Avicultural  Magazine,  Third  Series,  vol.  x.  No.  4,  February  1919, 
pp.  73-74. 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT         55 

to  the  body — an  indication  of  rapid  flight.  The 
swift,  a  bird  of  passage  which  crossed  the  wade  sea 
after  breeding  in  Japan,  is  not  known  to  alight 
in  AustraHa,  w^here  it  spends  a  considerable  time 
hunting  its  insect  prey  in  the  upper  air." 

In  A  History  of  the  Birds  of  Europe,"^ 
Dresser  writes  :  "  The  present  species  {Acanthyllis 
caudacuta  or  Chaetura  caudacuta  caudacuta)  and 
Acanthyllis  gigantea  are  said  to  be  the  swiftest 
birds  in  existence.  Tickell  says  that  he  never 
witnessed  anything  equal  to  the  prodigious  swift- 
ness of  its  movements." 

Chaetura  caudacuta  cochinchinensis  (which  is 
to  be  found  in  Malacca,  Sumatra,  and  Cochin 
China)  is  a  form  of  the  spine-tailed  swift  allied  to 
that  species  {Chaetura  caudacuta  caudacuta)  which 
is  so  rare  a  visitor  here.  I  have  examined  and  com- 
pared numerous  specimens  of  these  three  species 
of  spine-tailed  swifts,  and  it  would  seem  practic- 
ally certain,  in  view  of  their  similarity  in  size  and 
structure,  that  their  speed  must  be  similar. 

Mr.  E.  Stuart  Baker,  who  has  made  experi- 
ments as  to  the  speed  of  the  Chaetura  nudipes  and 
the    Chaetura    cochinchinensis,    writes  :  ^     "  Both 

1  Vol.  iv.  p.  616. 
2  British  Birds  Magazine,  vol.  xvi.  No.  1  (June  1,  1922),  p.  31. 


56  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

these  species  have  a  normal  flighting  speed  of 
something  very  nearly  approaching  200  miles  an 
hour,  enormously  in  excess  of  the  powers  of  any 
other  bird  with  which  I  am  acquainted.  In 
North  Cachar,  Assam,  these  birds  used  to  fly 
directly  over  my  bungalow  in  Ilaflang,  flying 
thence  in  a  straight  line  to  a  ridge  of  hills  exactly 
two  miles  away,  and  when  over  the  ridge  at  once 
dipping  out  of  sight.  We  constantly  timed  these 
swifts  and  found  that  stop-watches  made  them 
cover  this  distance  in  from  36  seconds  to  42 
seconds,  i.e.  at  a  rate  of  exactly  200  miles  an  hour 
to  171-4." 

Writing  of  the  Chaetura  nudipes  Mr.  W.  T. 
Blanford,  F.R.S.,  says :  ^  "This  and  the  other 
large  spine -tails  are,  I  believe,  absolutely  the 
swiftest  of  living  birds.  Their  flight  far  exceeds 
that  of  the  Alpine  swift,  and  I  doubt  if  any  falcon 
can  approach  them  in  speed.  They  are  generally 
seen  in  scattered  flocks  that  play  about  for  a  time 
and  disappear  at  a  pace  that  must  be  seen  to  be 
appreciated." 

The  same  ornithologist  refers  ^  to  the  Chaetura 

^  The  Fauna  of  British  India  including  Ceylon  and  Burma  Birds, 
vol.  iii.  p.  173.  Published  under  the  authority  of  the  Secretary  of  State 
for  India  in  Council.     Taylor  &  Francis,  London,  1895. 

2  Ibid.  p.  174. 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT         57 

indica  or  brown-necked  spine-tailed  swift,  which 
is  a  larger  species  (length  about  9  inches,  tail  2-6 
— wing  8 — tarsus  6-8),  as  being  "  equal  or  possibly- 
even  superior  in  speed  to  ChaeUira  nudipes — 
so  wonderful  is  their  flight  that  Mr.  H.  R.  P. 
Carter  remarked  that  a  flock  of  Alpine  swifts, 
passing  over  immediately  after  some  of  the 
present  species,  '  seemed  to  fly  like  owls  after 
the  arrow-like  speed  of  the  spine- tails.'  " 

I  think,  therefore,  that  if  the  speed  in  horizontal 
flight  is  alone  to  be  considered,  the  spine-tailed 
swift  is  the  fastest  bird  which  flies  in  the  British 
Isles,  that  the  Alpine  swift  comes  next ;  then  come 
the  northern  falcons  (or  as  they  are  usually 
called,  gyr- falcons)  and  the  peregrine  falcon,  in 
the  order  named,  except  in  the  case  of  a  very 
short  flight,  in  which  case  the  Golden  Plover  and 
teal,  being  faster  off  the  mark  and  better  sprinters, 
will  fly  more  quickly  than  the  falcons,  though 
they  will,  when  the  latter  really  get  going,  be 
gradually  overtaken. 

There  remains  for  consideration  the  speed  of 
the  golden  eagle  and  falcon  in  their  downward 
flight,  when  stooping  at  their  prey.  There  is  no 
certain  method  of  comparing  their  respective 
speeds  in  this  unique  kind  of  flight  either  with 


58  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

one  another  or  with  the  speed  of  other  birds  which 
never  fly  in  this  way.  In  considering  the  question 
of  the  relative  speed  of  the  two  birds  in  this  parti- 
cular kind  of  flight,  I  will  first  deal  with  the  matter 
on  principle  and  then  consider  such  evidence  of 
eye-witnesses  as  I  have  been  able  to  obtain.  The 
falcon  has  of  course  one  great  advantage  over  the 
eagle  as  regards  equipment  for  swift  flight.  He 
has  the  long  pointed  wings  typical  of  the  true 
falcon,  whereas  the  eagle  has  rounded  wings.  As 
between  birds  of  similar  size  and  spread  of  wings, 
the  bird  with  pointed  wings  is  faster  than  the  one 
with  rounded  wings.  Thus  a  blackcock  is  un- 
doubtedly faster  than  a  pheasant  although  their 
bodies  are  about  the  same  size,  or  to  be  more 
accurate  the  blackcock  is  rather  smaller  than  the 
pheasant.  A  striking  instance  of  this  was  recently 
given  in  the  Field  ^  by  Mr.  G.  Denholm  Armour, 
who  wrote  :  "  Some  years  ago  a  friend  asked  me 
to  come  to  Argyllshire  late  in  the  autumn  to  shoot 
some  black-game  which  lived  in  the  birch  and  fir 
woods  hanging  along  the  lower  parts  of  the  hills. 

"  Our  method  was  to  place  ourselves  in  a  break 
in  the  line  of  woods  at  the  bottom  of  the  hill, 
sending  two   or   three   men   to   drive   the   wood 

1  March  15,  1923. 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT         59 

towards  us.  The  result  was  usually  very  high 
birds  flying  downhill  and  very  fast.  On  several 
occasions  at  the  same  time  came  a  blackcock  and 
a  cock  pheasant,  of  which  there  were  a  few  in 
almost  every  drive.  Incidentally,  most  of  the 
pheasants  we  shot  were  old  birds  with  long  spurs, 
so  were  very  strong  on  the  wing.  In  each  case — 
and  I  noticed  several — the  blackcock  outflew  the 
pheasant  by  what  seemed  to  be  about  50  per  cent 
in  pace,  leaving  him  as  a  racing  car  would  a 
'  runabout.' 

"  The  chance  of  comparison  was  very  interest- 
ing, being  between  birds  of  much  the  same 
weight  and  size,  both  started  under  the  same 
conditions,  and  I  think  '  doing  their  best.'  Had 
the  blackcock  come  alone,  I  think  his  much 
slower  wing  beat  would  have  made  one  think  him 
the  slower  flier  of  the  two." 

The  blackcock  and  grouse  have  wings  exactly 
alike — but  the  blackcock  is  heavier  than  the 
grouse  and  much  faster. 

With  the  exception  of  the  diff'erence  in  the 
wings  mentioned  above,  the  structure  of  the  eagle 
and  falcon  is  very  similar,  and  as  has  been  pointed 
out,  the  larger  of  two  birds  of  similar  structure 
once    it    gets    going    is    almost  invariably  faster. 


60  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

owing  no  doubt  to  its  superior  muscular  power 
and  driving  force. 

In  comparing  the  downward  flight  of  the  eagle 
and  falcon  it  is  also  necessary  to  recollect  the 
advantage  which  the  former  has  by  reason  of  its 
much  greater  weight. 

It  is  difficult  to  obtain  thoroughly  reliable 
records  of  the  weights  of  the  golden  eagle  and 
the  different  falcons ;  but  so  far  as  I  can  ascertain, 
the  weight  of  the  eagle  varies  from  8 J  to  12-o  lb., 
that  of  the  gyr-falcon  from  3  to  3f  lb.,  and  that 
of  the  peregrine  from  2  to  3  ounces  under  2  lb. 
to  2 fib.,  in  each  case  of  course  the  female  bird 
being  heavier  than  the  male. 

But  for  the  resistance  of  the  air,  all  bodies, 
light  or  heavy,  small  or  large,  would  fall  at  the 
same  rate.  In  fact,  however,  as  velocity  increases 
a  notable  air  resistance  is  set  up  which  increases 
rapidly.  The  velocity  of  a  body  falling  freely  in 
vacuo  is  over  forty  miles  per  hour  at  the  end  of 
two  seconds,  over  sixty  at  the  end  of  three 
seconds,  and  so  on. 

We  all  know  by  experience  the  great  force 
exerted  by  a  wind  of  a  velocity  even  as  low  as 
thirty  miles  an  hour,  which  most  people  would 
call  a  hurricane.     But  it  is  not  perhaps  so  generally 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT        Gl 

known  that  in  proportion  to  its  weight,  other 
things  such  as  shape  and  specific  gravity  being 
similar,  a  small  body  experiences  much  greater 
resistance  than  a  large  body.  The  resistance  of 
the  air  to  the  fine  particles  of  vapour  which  con- 
stitute a  cloud  is  such  that  they  only  fall  at  the 
same  rate  of  a  few  feet  per  hour.  And  in  the  case 
of  two  birds  of  similar  shape  and  specific  gravity, 
but  one  eight  times  the  weight  of  the  other,  the 
larger  bird  would  ultimately  attain  a  velocity 
roughly  twice  as  great  as  the  other,  if  both  fell 
for  a  sufficient  distance  to  attain  their  limiting 
velocities,  i.e.  the  velocity  at  which  the  resistance 
offered  by  the  air  is  equal  to  the  attraction  of 
gravity.  Similarly  if  the  one  bird  were  four  times 
the  weight  of  the  other,  the  velocity  ultimately 
attained  under  the  conditions  mentioned  would 
be  roughly  one  and  a  half  times  as  great  as  the 
other. 

In  "  Notes  by  an  Old  Stalker  "  in  the  Field 
for  September  9,  1922  (p.  370)  there  appears  the 
following  interesting  account  of  a  duel  between  a 
golden  eagle  and  a  peregrine  which  the  writer 
himself  witnessed : 

"  Although  by  a  long  way  our  most  powerful 
bird,  the  eagle  is  by  no  means  a  match  for  some 


62  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

much  smaller  combatants.  Once  I  saw  an  eagle 
soaring  placidly  along  when  from  a  range  of 
precipices  immediately  below  him  a  falcon  shot 
up  into  the  air.  Without  a  moment's  hesitation  he 
attacked  the  giant  bird.  The  eagle  at  once  joined 
combat,  and  through  the  telescope  I  could  see 
his  efforts  to  hit  his  adversary  with  beak  and  wing. 
One  blow  from  either  and  it  would  be  all  over  with 
the  falcon  ;  but  the  latter  evidently  realised  this 
and  regulated  his  tactics  accordingly.  The  move- 
ments of  the  eagle  were  slow  and  cumbrous  com- 
pared to  the  rapid  action  and  lithe  activity  of  his 
adversary.  Every  time  he  dodged  the  eagle's 
stroke  and,  wheeling  rapidly,  got  in  his  blow 
before  the  huge  bird  could  recover  himself.  That 
the  eagle  was  in  a  great  rage  was  evident,  for  I 
could  hear  him  emitting  sounds  that  resembled 
notliing  so  much  as  the  bark  of  a  terrier.  Finally, 
realising  the  hopelessness  of  the  contest,  he  took 
to  flight.  I  previously  knew  that  the  eagle  was 
fast  on  wing,  but  the  speed  he  now  exhibited  was 
a  revelation  to  me.  With  half-extended,  half- 
curved  wings,  showing  never  a  tremor,  he  cleft 
the  air  straight  as  a  bullet.  The  falcon  pursued, 
but,  being  left  hopelessly  behind,  soon  gave  up 
the  chase." 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT        63 

The  flight  of  the  eagle  here  described  was 
obviously  a  glide  or  downward  flight,  when,  as  I 
have  pointed  out,  gravity  would  assist  his  speed  to 
a  greater  extent  than  it  would  in  a  bird  of  less 
weight — the  peregrine. 

In  the  case  of  a  bird  of  prey  descending  from 
a  height  on  its  quarry,  the  nearer  its  downward 
flight  is  to  the  vertical  the  faster  will  it  descend. 
In  coming  down  on  its  prey,  neither  the  eagle  nor 
the  falcon  completely  closes  its  wings,  probably 
because  if  it  did  so,  it  would  lose  control.  This 
is  also  true  of  the  gannet  or  solan  goose,  which  has 
been  described  as  the  largest  and  noblest-looking 
of  our  sea  fowl.  The  great  speed  which  a  bird  of 
large  size  can  attain  in  downward  flight  can  to 
some  extent  be  realised  by  watching  the  gannet 
when  he  drops  head  first  as  he  descends  per- 
pendicularly on  to  the  fish  in  the  water.  I  have 
carefully  examined  and  compared  the  skeletons 
of  the  eagle  and  peregrine  and  have  tried  to  form 
some  idea  as  to  the  relative  muscular  power  and 
driving  force  of  the  two  birds,  and  bearing  in 
mind  the  facts  stated  above,  and  the  greatly 
superior  size  and  weight  of  the  eagle,  it  seems 
reasonable  to  conclude  on  principle  that  the  eagle 
is  probably  faster  than  the  gyr-falcon  or  peregrine 


64  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

in  a  downward  flight,  assuming  that  both  birds 
are  putting  forth  all  their  powers. 

As  regards  the  evidence  of  eye-witnesses,  I  have 
discussed  this  question  with  many  stalkers.  The 
majority  of  them  have  never  seen  the  eagle  stoop 
at  its  quarry  and  strike  it  a  blow  which  sends  it 
to  the  ground  as  the  peregrine  so  often  does — 
though  they  have  seen  the  eagle  seize  its  quarry 
in  the  air  or  pounce  on  it  on  the  ground  and 
carry  it  off.  Only  a  few  of  these,  however, 
have  any  doubt  as  a  result  of  what  they  have 
heard  from  other  stalkers  and  keepers  that 
the  eagle  on  occasion  does  adopt  the  former 
method. 

It  is,  however,  an  undoubted  fact  that  although 
the  eagle  generally  captures  birds  which  he  is 
pursuing  by  seizing  them  in  his  talons  or,  to  use 
the  falconer's  term,  binding  on  them,  he  occasion- 
ally stoops  on  and  strikes  them  in  the  air,  sending 
them  hurtling  to  the  ground  in  the  same  way  as  the 
peregrine  does. 

The  reason  why  the  eagle  so  rarely  adopts  this 
method  is  probably  because  it  can  secure  its  prey 
without  doing  so,  and  further  if  it  were  to  exert  all 
its  powers  when  descending  from  a  considerable 
lieight  at  an  angle  near  the  vertical  on  a  grouse. 


THE  GOLDEN  EAGLE. 
By  V.  R.  Balfour-Brovvne. 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT         65 

blackcock,  or  ptarmigan  (which  do  not  usually 
fly  very  high  above  the  ground),  it  would  incur  a 
serious  risk  of  injury  in  consequence  of  being 
carried  on  by  its  impetus  and  dashing  against 
the  rocks  or  ground  after  striking  down  its 
prey. 

The  interesting,  and  I  think  significant,  fact  is 
that  although  some  of  these  stalkers  with  w^hom 
I  have  discussed  the  question  think  that  the 
peregrine  probably  flies  faster  than  the  eagle, 
every  one  of  them  who  has  seen  the  eagle  kill  its 
quarry  in  this  way  (and  I  know  several)  has  told 
me  that  in  his  opinion  the  eagle  in  its  final  rush 
is  faster  than  the  peregrine.  It  is  also  important 
in  this  connection  to  bear  in  mind  the  fact  on 
which  Major  RadclyfFe  lays  such  stress — that  it 
is  an  optical  illusion  to  imagine  that  a  smaller- 
sized  bird  is  flying  faster  than  a  larger  bird  of 
similar  shape  and  make,  and  that,  as  he  says,  ninety- 
nine  sportsmen  out  of  a  hundred  would  probably 
tell  you  that  a  snipe  flies  faster  than  a  woodcock — 
whereas  the  converse  is  true.  An  old  keeper  in 
the  North,  whom  I  have  known  for  many  years, 
told  me  that  he  had  seen  the  eagle  stoop  at  and 
strike  his  quarry  in  this  way  on  two  occasions, 
and  that  it  moved  in  its  final  downward  flight 


66  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

with    the    same    lightning-like    rapidity   as    the 
peregrine. 

Jolin  Finlayson,  the  head  stalker  at  Killilan, 
wrote  to  me  last  February  as  follows  :  "I  have 
once  plainly  seen  the  eagle  driving  after  grouse 
and  striking  it  down  very  similar  like  what  the 
peregrine  falcon  does.  It  happened  at  the  north 
end  of  Corrie-ach.  I  was  going  up  to  Patt  from 
Mulbuie  way.  A  covey  of  grouse  came  tearing 
down  from  the  low  end  of  Aonachbuie  in  front 
of  me,  about  300  yards  away,  and  an  eagle  in  hot 
pursuit,  wings  gathered  up,  and  making  a  swish- 
ing noise ;  going  through  the  air  it  struck  one  down, 
with  a  cloud  of  feathers  knocked  out  when  it  did 
so.  The  eagle  glided  up  a  little,  then  balanced 
and  dropped  down  where  the  bird  fell  ;  it  was  a 
little  over  a  ridge  out  of  my  view ;  when  I  got  up 
to  the  place  I  saw  the  eagle  well  up  the  glen  going 
fast  with  the  bird  in  its  talons." 

My  gamekeeper,  Donald  Mclver,  who  has 
lived  all  his  life  in  Ross-shire,  on  one  occasion  saw 
an  eagle  strike  and  kill  a  blackcock.  This  is  his 
account  of  it.  "  In  the  forest  of  Strathconan, 
where  I  was  for  a  number  of  years,  I  once  saw  a 
very  fine  sight  of  an  eagle  pursuing  a  blackcock. 
The  blackcock  got  up  at  the  head  of  a  very  deep 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT         67 

corrie  and  came  over  at  a  very  great  height.  The 
eagle  was  about  and  soon  after  it.  I  could  see 
him  overtake  the  bird,  and  I  would  say  that  he 
struck  him  the  same  way  as  the  peregrine  does 
with  his  claw.  I  saw  something  drop,  but  could 
not  make  out  what  it  was  at  the  time  ;  then  the 
eagle  doubled  in  the  air  and  caught  the  bird  before 
it  reached  the  ground.  None  of  the  other  eagles 
I  have  seen  after  their  prey  have  struck  it  like  this 
in  the  air.  They  have  always  clutched  at  their 
prey,  but  this  time  the  eagle  struck  the  bird  and 
went  right  past  him.  I  was  not  far  off,  and  could 
hear  a  tremendous  noise  of  the  wings.  When  the 
eagle  doubled  back  and  caught  the  bird  in  the 
air  I  would  judge  that  the  bird  would  be  as  high 
up  as  three  hundred  feet,  and  when  he  doubled 
back  I  should  think  he  was  not  fifty. 

"  Perhaps  the  narrowness  of  the  corrie  might  be 
the  reason  for  him  taking  the  bird  in  the  way  he 
did — I  went  to  the  place  and  found  the  head  of 
the  blackcock  ;  there  was  about  three  inches  of 
skin  hanging  to  the  head,  a  tear  like  what  would 
be  done  with  the  claw.  This  is  the  only  time  I 
ever  saw  an  eagle  kill  a  bird  in  the  air,  but  it  was 
a  grand  sight.  This  happened  in  January  1895, 
in  Corrie  Vullin,  Strathconan." 


68  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

This  amazing  feat  in  aerial  gymnastics  is  no 
doubt  also  performed  on  rare  occasions  by  the 
peregrine.  One  of  the  most  experienced  of 
living  falconers  wTote  to  me  as  follows  :  "I  have 
seen  a  very  celebrated  falcon  which  I  owned  for 
years  bring  off  a  remarkable  trick  several  times. 
She  used  to  strike  at  the  back  of  the  grouse's 
head,  and  I  have  seen  her  just  scalp  the  grouse, 
taking  a  piece  out  of  its  skull  not  as  large  as  a  pea, 
and  thus  killing  the  bird  in  mid-air  just  as  if  it 
was  shot ;  often,  when  the  grouse  w^as  high  above 
the  ground,  I  have  seen  the  falcon  then  take  a 
sharp  turn  in  the  air  as  the  grouse  was  falling,  like 
a  spinning  leaf,  and  pick  it  up  in  her  feet  before  it 
could  touch  the  ground — a  very  wonderful  sight." 

An  old  friend  of  mine,  who  is  head  stalker  in 
one  of  our  best -known  deer  forests  and  whose 
veracity  I  have  every  reason  to  accept,  told  me  an 
interesting  story  which  further  illustrates  what 
fine  feats  in  the  air  the  peregrine  falcon  can  per- 
form. He  said  that  on  one  occasion  he  saw  a 
falcon  strike  and  carry  off  a  crow.  As  the  falcon 
was  circling  higher  and  higher  up,  carrying  off  this 
crow,  it  was  mobbed  by  a  considerable  number  of 
other  crows.  For  some  time  it  ignored  them, 
continuing  its  steady  upward  circling  flight  until 


BRITISH  BIRDS  OF  FASTEST  FLIGHT        69 

one  crow,  becoming  rather  bolder  than  the  rest, 
provoked  the  falcon  into  retaliation.  Dropping 
the  crow  it  was  carrying,  the  falcon  stooped  on  the 
troublesome  crow,  struck  and  killed  it  and,  turn- 
ing with  extraordinary  rapidity,  caught  in  the 
air  the  dead  crow  which  it  had  been  carrying,  and 
then  recommenced  its  upward  flight  without 
further  trouble  from  the  crows. 

The  marvellous  speed  of  the  golden  eagle  and 
peregrine  in  their  final  rush,  when  stooping  from 
a  height  at  their  quarry,  must  be  seen  to  be 
believed.  Few  persons  have  been  so  fortunate  as 
to  have  this  opportunity  in  the  case  of  the  golden 
eagle,  although  this  grand  bird  is  often  to  be  seen 
in  some  forests  and  has  no  doubt  increased  in 
numbers  in  recent  years.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  are  of  course  many  persons  who  have  seen 
both  the  wild  peregrine  and  the  trained  gyr- 
falcon  and  peregrine  strike  down  their  quarry. 

The  well-known  ornithologist  and  wild-fowler, 
Mr.  W.  H.  Robinson  of  Lancaster,  in  a  letter  in 
the  Field  of  January  28,  1922,  after  stating  from 
his  own  experience  that  the  peregrine  can  over- 
take the  golden  plover  and  the  curlew  with  the 
greatest  ease,  says  : 

"  To  my  mind  one  of  the  fastest  things  I  have 


70 


AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 


ever  witnessed  is  the  last  effort  of  a  peregrine  in 
chase  of  a  wild  duck  when,  fast  as  is  the  accelerated 
speed  of  a  mallard,  it  seems  almost  to  be  standing 
still  in  the  air  when  the  peregrine  stoops  over  it." 

Any  one  who  has  seen  this,  as  I  am  glad  to  say 
I  have,  will  assuredly  echo  these  words. 

It  is  of  course  pure  speculation  whether,  in  the 
comparatively  short  flight  of  an  eagle  or  falcon 
stooping  in  its  final  downward  rush  at  its  prey,  its 
speed  exceeds  the  maximum  speed  of  the  spine- 
tailed  swift.  Those,  however,  who  have  seen  the 
last  effort  of  the  eagle  or  falcon  in  a  flight  of  that 
unique  kind  will  never  believe,  without  scientific 
demonstration  to  the  contrary,  that  any  other 
bird  in  the  British  Isles  can  fly  faster. 


,e^ 


A  GOOD  DAY  IN  THE  FOREST  OF 
COIGNAFEARN 


Towards  the  end  of  a  September  several  years 
ago  I  was  so  fortunate  as  to  be  invited  to  stalk 
at  Coignafearn,  which  has  always  been  famous 
for  the  size  and  weight  of  its  deer.  On  reach- 
ing the  lodge  on  a  Saturday  night,  I  heard  that 
the  head  stalker  had  met  with  an  accident, 
fortunately  not  a  bad  one,  but  possibly  serious 
enough  to  prevent  his  going  out  with  me  on  the 
following  Monday.  He  had  been  out  in  the 
forest  the  day  before  I  arrived,  and  on  going  up 


71 


72  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

to  a  stag  to  bleed  him,  the  stag  had  given  a  sudden 
unexpected  plunge,  which  had  caused  the  stalker 
to  inflict  on  himself  a  nasty  wound  in  his  right 
leg  with  his  knife,  which  was  open  in  his  hand  ; 
another  instance  that  no  one,  not  even  the  oldest 
and  most  experienced  of  stalkers,  can  be  too 
careful  on  these  occasions.  On  Monday  morning 
he  was  much  better  but  not  fit  to  go  with  me. 
The  season  was  well  advanced,  and  my  host  was 
very  anxious  to  kill  the  usual  number  of  stags  as 
soon  as  possible.  It  was  therefore  arranged  that  I 
should  act  as  my  own  stalker,  and  take  with  me 
a  watcher  named  Maclennan.  I  had  also  two 
gillies  with  me  and  a  couple  of  ponies,  and  my 
host  told  me  that  he  would  be  only  too  glad,  if 
I  could  manage  it,  if  I  would  kill  as  many  stags 
as  could  be  brought  in.  Maclennan  had  never 
acted  as  stalker,  but  as  there  is  nothing  I  like 
better  than  to  do  the  stalking  myself,  I  was  very 
pleased  with  this  arrangement,  for  Maclennan 
knew  the  ground  thoroughly,  and  I  felt  sure  that 
his  assistance  would  be  invaluable  ;  indeed,  with- 
out him  I  could  of  course  have  done  practically 
nothing,  as  the  ground  was  strange  to  me.  We 
were  in  the  forest  and  spying  by  10  a.m.,  and  very 
soon  we  saw  a  good  stag  with  some  hinds.     The 


A  GOOD  DAY  IN  THE  FOREST  73 

stalk  was  unsuccessful,  but  it  was  not  long  before 
we  spied  another  good  stag,  and  without  much 
difficulty  I  managed  to  get  into  a  good  position 
within  about  150  yards,  and  shot  him  through 
the  heart.  He  proved  to  be  a  good  eight-pointer, 
and  weighed  15  stone  clean.  Shortly  after  this 
we  spied  a  large  herd  of  deer  which  were  very 
restless,  continually  on  the  move.  There  were 
several  good  stags  in  the  herd,  and  these  were 
roaring  and  fighting  and  driving  the  hinds  about. 
Two  of  them  in  particular,  which  looked  like  the 
heaviest,  engaged  in  a  battle  which  lasted  for  some 
time ;  but  gradually  one  of  them  showed  signs  of 
being  worsted  and,  watching  his  opportunity, 
suddenly  turned  tail  and  bolted.  It  is  rarely 
that  battles  of  this  kind  end  fatally — only  once 
have  I  met  an  eye-witness  of  such  an  occurrence. 
The  battle  was  between  a  switch  and  a  ten- 
pointer.  The  combatants  were  fighting  on  the 
side  of  a  hill  and  were  very  evenly  matched.  My 
informant,  the  stalker  at  Attadale,  said  that  after 
some  time  the  switch,  taking  advantage  of  being 
on  slightly  higher  ground,  charged  his  adversary 
and,  getting  past  his  guard,  pierced  his  side  with 
his  antlers.  The  ten-pointer  immediately  fell  to 
the  ground  dead.     The  stalker  ran  up  and  found 

10 


74  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

that  the  dead  stag  had  been  pierced  through  the 
heart  by  his  conqueror. 

The  stag  with  the  best  horns  is  generally  not 
the  best  fighter  and  is  frequently  driven  out  by 
a  switch-horn  or  "  caberslach,"  whose  long  skewer- 
like antlers  are  the  most  effective  horns  for 
fighting.  The  best  fighter  of  all  is,  however, 
the  hummel — a  stag  which  has  no  horns  at  all, 
and  which  is  in  consequence  a  very  heavy  beast. 

It  is  astonishing  how  a  stag  will  sometimes 
acknowledge  himself  beaten  without  any  fight  at 
all.  I  remember  when  stalking  at  Fealar  that  I 
had  been  trying  without  success  for  nearly  two 
hours  to  get  a  shot  at  a  big  black  stag  which  was 
in  pursuit  of  a  large  number  of  hinds  and  was 
constantly  on  the  move,  skirmishing  with  smaller 
stags  and  driving  them  away.  Suddenly  we 
heard  the  sound  of  great  roaring  and  saw  coming 
from  the  direction  of  Mar  Forest  a  huge  red  stag 
which  evidently  had  for  its  objective  the  hinds  who 
were  in  charge  of  the  black  stag.  The  newcomer 
kept  running  for  a  short  distance  and  then  stopped 
to  roar  and  gi'unt.  We  thought  that  by  running 
hard  we  might  reach  a  point  near  enough  to  get 
a  shot  at  him.  We  accordingly  ran  as  fast  as  we 
could  in  order  to  try  to  cut  him  off,  but  in  vain. 


A  GOOD  DAY  IN  THE  FOREST  75 

Before  we  could  get  within  shot  of  him  he 
had  passed  this  point  we  were  making  for.  As 
soon  as  he  got  within  sixty  to  seventy  yards 
of  the  black  stag,  who  was  waiting  and  every 
now  and  then  roaring  defiantly  in  answer  to  his 
challenge,  the  latter  seemed  suddenly  to  realise 
that  the  contest  would  be  hopeless  and  turned 
tail  and  bolted  ignominiously,  being  pursued  only 
for  a  short  distance  by  his  adversary,  who  then 
rounded  up  the  hinds  and  drove  them  off. 

But  to  return  to  my  story.  We  tried  to  stalk 
the  victorious  stag,  which  seemed  to  be  the  best 
beast  in  the  herd,  but  found  it  extraordinarily 
difficult  to  get  within  shot  of  him.  There  always 
seemed  to  be  several  hinds  in  the  way,  and,  as  it 
was  now  getting  towards  two  o'clock,  we  decided 
to  have  luncheon,  in  the  hope  that  in  the  meantime 
the  deer  would  settle  down,  and  that  we  should 
then  have  a  chance  at  the  stag  we  were  after.  We 
did  not  waste  any  time  over  lunch  and  very  soon 
again  had  the  deer  in  view.  They  were  still  on 
the  move  and  we  followed  them  for  some  time. 
The  stag  which  we  were  after,  which  we  made  out 
to  be  a  nine-pointer,  was  evidently  much  troubled 
by  two  other  stags  only  a  little  smaller  than  him- 
self, and  presently,  after  chasing  away  first  one 


76  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

and  then  the  other,  these  three  stags  were  between 
us  and  the  herd.     Now  at  last  it  seemed  there 
was  some  chance  of  getting  a  shot  at  the  nine- 
pointer,  but  before  we  could  get  up  to  him  he 
began  again  to  chase  off  the  other  stags,  and  then 
turned,   and  at   a  good  pace   followed   the   herd 
which   was    moving   away   from    us.     The    other 
stags  then  also  turned  and  followed  in  the  same 
direction,   though  at  a  respectful  distance  from 
the  nine-pointer.     Maclennan  and  I,  by  running 
and  crawling   quickly,   gradually  diminished  the 
distance  between  ourselves  and  the  deer,  and  at 
last,  after  a  quick  run  when  out  of  their   sight, 
crawled  up  a  small  hill  and  saw  the  three  stags, 
the  nine-pointer   watching   the  other   two.     The 
nine-pointer  was  nearly  200  yards  from  us  when 
he  suddenly  stopped  and  turned,  standing  for  a 
moment    about    three-quarters    on.     I    saw    that 
this  was  my  only  chance,  as  the  stags  were  just 
on  the  brow  of  the  hill,  and  in  a  few  moments 
would  almost  certainly  be  out  of  sight.     I  there- 
fore decided  to  take  the  chance  and  fired. 

"  You  have  him,  sir,"  said  Maclennan,  as  the 
stag,  evidently  hard  hit,  disappeared  over  the 
brow  of  the  hill.  We  made  our  way  as  fast  as  we 
could  over  the  hill,  but  saw  no  sign  of  the  stag. 


A  GOOD  DAY  IN  THE  FOREST  77 

The  ground  was  rocky  and  very  broken,  and  I 
felt  sure  that  he  could  not  have  gone  far,  and  was 
lying  down  hiding  himself.  We  began  to  search, 
when  suddenly  the  stag  jumped  up  from  under  a 
rock  about  some  eighty  yards  from  us,  and  after 
running  for  about  500  yards  farther  lay  down 
behind  a  rock,  showing  only  the  point  of  his 
horns.  I  had  not  shot  at  him  again,  as  he  was  end 
on,  and  was  evidently  in  such  a  condition  that  he 
could  not  go  very  far.  We  followed  up,  keeping 
well  out  of  sight,  but  found  it  impossible  to  get  a 
chance  of  shooting,  so  cleverly  had  he  concealed 
himself.  Whilst  hesitating  as  to  what  would  be 
the  best  course  to  take,  the  stag  suddenly  got  up 
again  and  bolted,  but  this  time  he  gave  me  a  fair 
chance  of  a  shot,  and  I  killed  him  before  he  had 
gone  more  than  a  few  yards.  On  getting  up  to 
him,  we  found  that  my  first  shot  was  not  suffi- 
ciently forward,  but  was  a  raking  shot  through 
the  body,  and  the  stag  could  not  in  any  case  have 
gone  very  far.  He  was  a  good  beast  with  a  strong 
horn,  and  later  turned  the  scale  at  16  stone  9  lb. 
clean.  After  gralloching  the  stag,  one  of  the 
gillies  went  off  to  signal  to  the  ponyman  ;  and 
Maclennan,  the  other  gillie,  and  I  proceeded  to 
work  our  way  back  to  the  lodge,  hoping  to  get 


78  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

another  shot  on  the  way  home.  We  soon  spied  a 
good  stag  with  a  number  of  hinds,  and,  after  a  long 
stalk,  I  got  a  good  chance  of  taking  a  quick  shot  at 
a  little  over  100  yards  and  fired.  The  stag  dis- 
appeared. Maclennan  thought  I  had  hit  him, 
but  I  was  very  uncertain,  and  think  I  must  have 
shot  over  him.  A  long  and  careful  search  on  the 
ground,  which  was  very  broken,  showed  nothing. 
There  was  no  sign  of  the  stag,  nor  were  there  any 
marks  of  blood  to  be  seen,  and  I  felt  satisfied  that 
I  must  have  missed  him,  though  Maclennan  and 
the  gillie  had  thought  otherwise. 

We  again  started  to  work  our  way  back,  and 
had  not  gone  very  far  before  Maclennan  suddenly 
stopped  and  brought  his  glass  to  bear  on  the  face 
of  a  hill  about  half  a  mile  away.  He  then  said 
there  was  a  stag  with  a  fine  wide  head  lying  down, 
and  that  we  ought  to  be  able  to  get  close  to  him 
without  difficulty,  as  the  ground  was  very  broken. 
I  proceeded  to  stalk  this  stag,  and  got  without 
great  difficulty  within  about  180  yards  of  him, 
when  I  saw  that  he  was  up  and  looking  very 
suspicious,  and  that  I  should  have  to  take  my 
shot  as  soon  as  I  could.  We  quickly  got  the  rifle 
out  of  the  cover,  and  crawled  to  another  hillock 
about  100  yards  from  where  the  stag  was.    Arrived 


A  GOOD  DAY  IN  THE  FOREST  79 

there,  I  pushed  the  barrels  of  my  rifle  over  the 
top  of  the  hillock  and  slowly  raised  my  head.  The 
stag  was  standing  nearly  broadside  on,  looking 
straight  at  me.  I  fired.  There  was  a  thud  as  the 
bullet  struck  him,  and  he  turned  and  galloped  off, 
disappearing  round  a  corner  of  the  hill.  I  felt 
confident  that  the  bullet  had  gone  home  ;  and  we 
found  the  stag,  who  had  been,  as  I  thought,  shot 
through  the  heart,  lying  dead  about  sixty  yards 
from  the  place  where  he  had  been  standing  w^ien 
I  fired  at  him.  He  was  a  ten-pointer,  and  had  a 
fine  wide  head  with  a  good  horn,  and  when  we 
got  him  home  we  found,  curiously  enough,  that 
his  weight  was  exactly  the  same  as  that  of  the 
first  stag  that  I  had  shot — 15  stone  clean. 

Leaving  the  gillie  to  gralloch  the  stag, 
Maclennan  and  I  now  proceeded  homewards, 
keeping  a  sharp  look-out,  and  presently  we  saw 
a  considerable  number  of  stags,  which  were  moving 
across  the  valley  from  one  hill  to  another.  We 
saw  that  if  they  were  not  disturbed  they  would 
probably  cross  a  little  hill  not  far  from  us,  at  a 
point  from  which  we  could,  if  we  moved  quickly, 
get  to  within  shooting  distance.  So,  running 
and  walking  quickly,  we  reached  a  spot  about  140 
to  150  yards  from  the  point  at  which  we  expected 


80  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

the  stags  to  pass,  and  arrived  just  in  time.  The 
stags  were  moving  slowly  almost  broadside  to  us 
in  single  file,  and  were  passing  over  a  little  knoll, 
at  which  point  I  had  a  fine  chance  of  a  shot. 

"  Take  the  second  one,  sir,"  said Maclennan,  who 
had  his  glass  on  them.  I  was  just  about  to  fire  when 
he  said :  "  No,  not  that  one,  but  the  third ;  he's 
better. ' '  Again  I  was  on  the  point  of  shooting  when 
Maclennan  said  :  "  Wait,  sir,  wait ;  take  the  fifth, 
he's  the  best."  Directly  the  stag  topped  the  knoll 
I  fired,  and  he  ran  a  few  yards  and  fell  down.  On 
coming  up  to  him  I  found  it  necessary  to  give  him 
another  bullet  through  the  neck.  We  found  that 
this  stag  was  by  far  the  best  we  had  seen  that  day. 
He  was  a  royal,  in  splendid  condition,  and  weighed 
17  stone  G  lb.  clean.  He  had  a  magnificent  head, 
with  very  thick  black  horns,  and  long  points  with 
white  tips.  After  gralloching  him,  and  tying  a  hand- 
kerchief to  his  horns  to  scare  the  eagles  and  foxes, 
we  made  our  way  back  to  the  lodge.  I  had 
several  good  days  in  the  forest  subsequently,  with 
one  or  other  of  the  regular  stalkers,  but  none 
more  enjoyable  than  this  one,  in  which,  without 
the  assistance  of  a  regular  stalker,  I  had  the  good 
fortune  to  kill  four  stags  averaging  over  16  stone 
clean,  without  heart  or  liver. 


J 


> 


* 


"% 


_>-'•■  ■;, 


VI 

A  STALKER'S  PERIL 

The  accident  to  the  head  stalker  which  I  men- 
tioned in  the  preceding  article  shows  that  stalking, 
like  almost  every  other  sport,  has  its  dangers,  and 
every  one  acquainted  with  the  pursuit  of  deer 
knows  the  necessity  of  exercising  great  care  in 
approaching  them  after  they  have  been  shot. 

A  serious  accident  is,  however,  very  rare,  but 
sometimes  even  the  most  experienced  stalkers,  as 
in  the  instance  referred  to  above,  incur  risks 
which  they  ought  not  to  take. 

81  11 


82  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

Far  more  serious  than  the  accident  which  I 
have  described  was  one  which  occurred  several 
years  ago,  recorded  by  a  former  neighbour  of 
mine  in  the  north,  the  owner  of  a  well-known 
deer  forest.  I  give  the  story  in  his  own  words, 
as  well  as  I  can  remember.  "  It  was  late  one  day 
in  the  forest  of  Fannich,  where  I  was  stalking  as 
the  guest  of  one  of  my  relatives  who  was  at  that 
time  a  tenant  of  the  forest.  After  a  long  and 
difficult  stalk,  I  had  succeeded  in  getting  up  to 
the  stag  and  shot  it.  The  stalker,  Duncan,  an 
excellent  man  of  long  experience,  approached  the 
animal  to  give  it  the  coup  de  g?^dce,  and,  with  his 
open  knife  in  his  right  hand,  seized  one  of  the 
stag's  forelegs  with  his  left.  Instantly  the  stag 
gave  a  tremendous  plunge  and  threw  Duncan 
back.  The  knife  went  into  Duncan's  thigh,  and 
he  bled  profusely.  Both  of  us  made  frantic 
efforts  to  stop  the  bleeding,  but  without  avail. 
The  gillie,  who  was  behind,  came  up,  and  we  did 
all  we  could,  but  having  no  medical  training,  or 
even  a  knowledge  of  first  aid,  were  unable  to 
render  useful  assistance.  Duncan  got  weaker 
and  fainter,  and  was  apparently  bleeding  to  death. 
He  was,  however,  perfectly  cool  and  collected, 
said   there   was   no   one   to    blame    but    himself, 


<      z 

-=H  Z 


p     5 


A  STALKER'S  PERIL  83 

that  he  was  awfully  careless,  and  ought  never  to 
have  taken  hold  of  the  stag  in  the  way  he  did. 

"  He  appeared  to  be  rapidly  getting  weaker, 
and  said  quite  quietly  that  he  thought  he  was 
dying,  and  asked  me  to  take  some  messages  for 
him  to  his  wife  and  children,  and  then  seemed 
to  be  losing  consciousness.  It  was  getting  dusk, 
and  the  gillie  urged  me  not  to  wait  any  longer,  as 
I  could  do  no  good,  and  unless  I  started  for  the 
lodge  at  once  I  should  not  be  able  to  find  my  way. 
So  with  a  heavy  heart  I  said  good-bye  to  poor 
Duncan  and  started  homewards.  From  time  to 
time  I  turned  to  look  back  at  the  two  men,  and 
at  last,  when  I  reached  the  top  of  the  last  hill  I 
had  to  cross  before  losing  sight  of  them,  I  turned 
to  take  one  final  glance.  When  I  looked  round, 
however,  I  was  startled  to  see,  close  to  the  place 
where  Duncan  had  been  lying,  the  figures  of 
two  men  walking  slowly.  There  was  no  mistake 
about  it — they  were  Duncan  and  the  gillie.  I 
ran  back  again,  and  found  that  soon  after  I  left 
them  the  bleeding  had  stopped  quite  unaccount- 
ably, and  Duncan,  though  still  very  weak,  had 
gradually  revived  and  finally  insisted  on  trying 
to  walk.  We  persuaded  him  to  rest,  and,  leaving 
the  gillie  beside  him,  I  went  back  to  the  lodge  as 


84  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

quickly  as  I  could  and  sent  up  a  pony.  Duncan 
got  safely  home,  and  when  the  doctor  saw  him 
he  said  it  was  a  marvellous  escape,  for  if  the  knife 
had  gone  into  Duncan's  thigh  two  inches  from 
the  spot  where  it  entered,  nothing  could  have 
saved  his  life." 


VII 
THE  LUCK  OF  SALMON  FISHING 

I  HAVE  always  sympathised  with  the  author  of  the 
lines  known  as  "  The  Angler's  Prayer,"  lines 
which  are  not  so  well  known  as  they  deserve  to 
be: 

Lord,  suffer  me  to  catch  a  fish — 

So  large  that  even  I 
When  talking  of  it  afterwards 

May  have  no  need  to  lie. 

In  the  spring  of  1921  came  the  tragedy  of  my 
life  as  a  fisherman.  I  had  five  days'  fishing  in  the 
famous  river  Wye.  The  river  was  dead  low  and 
my  chances  of  success  very  small,  but  I  kept 
steadily  at  Avork  during  the  time  at  my  disposal, 
and  on  the  fourth  day  had  the  good  fortune,  by 

85 


86  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

means  of  the  attractions  of  a  Mar  Lodge  (size 
4/0),  to  hook  a  salmon  which  was  not  only  the 
largest  salmon  I  had  ever  seen,  but  also  the 
largest  seen  in  that  year  on  the  beat  I  w^as  fishing — 
a  most  exciting  struggle  of  over  an  hour  terminat- 
ing in  a  wild  rush  of  over  100  yards,  the  wildest 
rush  I,  or  the  keen  fisherman  I  had  with  me,  have 
ever  seen,  a  grand  leap  high  up  into  the  air  of  this 
splendid  clean-run  fish,  and  the  line  came  slowly 
back,  the  cast  having  broken  a  foot  from  the  end. 
Elsewhere  (pp.  12-22,  supra)  I  have  told  of  how  this 
splendid  fish,  no  doubt  exhausted  by  the  struggle, 
was  shortly  afterwards  killed  by  a  far  greater 
fisherman  than  any  mere  mortal  man — an  otter. 
Its  estimated  weight,  as  far  as  could  be  judged 
from  its  remains,  was  about  40  lb.  The  day  was 
Friday,  April  1,  an  appropriate  day  and  date  for 
such  a  catastrophe.  In  the  early  part  of  the 
following  year  I  received  an  invitation  from  the 
same  kindly  host  to  try  my  luck  again  in  April  on 
the  same  river,  but  on  another  and  more  famous 
beat.  I  gratefully  accepted  the  invitation,  and 
set  forth  in  high  hopes  and,  curiously  enough, 
with  a  strong  sense  of  expectation,  I  might  almost 
say  the  assurance,  of  great  events. 

For  several  days  after  my  arrival  the  river  was 


THE  LUCK  OF  SALMON  FISHING  87 

so  high  that  fishing  was  hopeless,  but  on  the 
morning  of  April  18,  though  still  high  and 
coloured,  it  had  run  down  to  such  an  extent  as 
to  be  in  fair  condition. 

My  host  was  most  kind  in  wishing  to  give  me 
every  possible  chance  of  getting  a  good  fish,  and 
had  arranged  that  I  should  take  with  me  his 
butler,  C,  a  first-rate  hand  at  gaffing  salmon, 
who  had  been  with  me  in  the  preceding  year  when 
I  was  so  unfortunate,  and  was  very  keen  to  help 
me  to  kill  a  big  fish.  My  host  sent  me  to  try, 
first  of  all,  a  pool  which  had  a  great  reputation. 
This  pool  is  about  a  mile  long,  and  has  to  be  fished 
from  a  boat,  trees  and  bushes  running  throughout 
its  entire  length  along  both  sides  of  the  bank. 
My  host  had  the  fishing  on  one  side  of  the  river 
only,  and  on  reaching  the  head  of  the  pool  we 
found  some  one  fishing  from  the  other  side. 
After  waiting  until  this  rod  had  fished  some  way 
down  the  pool,  we  began  operations.  I  fished 
the  whole  morning  with  the  fly,  but  with  no 
success,  and  about  half-past  one,  as  the  river  was 
still  so  high,  we  decided  to  try  the  minnow,  a  much 
more  favourite  lure  than  the  fly  on  this  particular 
river  in  the  spring.  At  my  third  cast  I  got  a  pull, 
and  was  fast  in  what  was  obviously  a  heavy  salmon. 


88  Ai\IID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

I  never  had  a  more  lively  fish  to  deal  with.  It 
jumped  fourteen  times  clean  out  of  the  water, 
and,  making  a  constant  series  of  wild  rushes,  took 
me  at  a  great  pace  down  the  river.  Some  ladies 
of  our  party  arrived  at  the  head  of  the  pool  about 
half  an  hour  after  I  had  hooked  the  fish,  and 
inquired  of  the  fisherman  on  the  other  bank 
whether  he  had  seen  anything  of  me.  The  reply 
was,  "  I  saw  him  fast  in  a  big  fish  about  half  an 
hour  ago  going  round  the  bend  of  the  river  on 
his  way  to  Hereford."  Though  I  did  not  get  to 
Hereford,  which  was  nearly  thirty  miles  distant, 
the  fish  took  me  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
down  the  river  before  I  succeeded  in  killing  it, 
after  over  an  hour's  battle.  It  was  a  beautiful 
clean -run  hen -fish  of  21 J  lb.  By  this  time  it 
was  nearly  three  o'clock,  and  after  a  hasty  luncheon 
we  decided  to  fish  down  the  lower  part  of  the  pool. 
On  our  way  we  had  to  pass  a  point  where  C.  had 
seen  a  fish  rising  as  we  came  up  in  the  morning. 
I  fished  this  place  with  great  care,  and  about  my 
second  cast  as  the  minnow  swung  round  I  got  a 
pull  and  hooked  the  fish.  I  had  a  good  deal  more 
of  my  own  way  with  this  fish  than  with  the  one  I 
had  previously  killed,  and  in  about  twenty  minutes 
it  was   in  the  boat.      It   proved  to   be   another 


THE  LUCK  OF  SALMON  FISHING  89 

clean -run  hen -fish,  and  weighed  18  Jib.  The 
question  now  was  whether  we  should  fish  another 
pool  lower  down  the  river  or  try  the  head  of  the 
same  pool  again.  1  decided  in  favour  of  the  latter 
course,  and  we  accordingly  rowed  up  to  the  top  of 
the  pool.  It  was  by  this  time  half-past  six.  My 
third  cast  I  was  into  another  fish,  which  did  not 
show  itself  for  a  long  time.  It  took  me  down  the 
river  like  the  fish  I  had  hooked  in  the  morning, 
but  was  not  nearly  so  lively  in  its  movements.  It 
kept  low  down  in  the  water  and  adopted  boring 
tactics.  After  rounding  the  corner,  as  my  fellow- 
angler  would  have  said,  bound  once  more  for 
Hereford,  the  fish  made  a  violent  rush  and  plunge, 
showing  itself  to  be  a  very  big  fish  and  looking  not 
unlike  the  fish  I  had  parted  company  with  a  year 
ago.  We  continued  to  go  steadily  dow^n  the  river, 
the  fish  making  strong  rushes,  but  keeping  down 
and  moving  about  in  a  stately,  heavy  fashion.  We 
gradually  reached  the  spot  where  we  had  gaffed 
the  21J-pounder  in  the  morning,  our  movements 
being  watched  by  the  ladies  of  our  party  from  the 
opposite  bank.  The  fish  showed  little  sign  of 
giving  in,  and  about  8  p.m.  the  spectators  on  the 
bank,  seeing  no  likelihood  of  the  battle  being 
ended  at  present,  went  home.     About  ten  minutes 

12 


90  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

later  the  fish  began  to  show  unmistakable  signs 
of  exhaustion.  After  it  had  turned  on  its  side 
two  or  three  times,  I  managed  to  bring  it  near 
the  boat,  which  C.  had  moored  near  the  bank. 
Just  before  the  fish  came  within  reach  of  the  gaff 
it  made  another  short  rush,  and  once  more  turned 
on  its  side.  Again  I  coaxed  the  great  fish  towards 
the  boat.  Nearer  and  nearer  he  came,  and  then 
in  a  moment  C.  had  the  gaff  in  him,  and  with  a 
mighty  effort  lifted  him  into  the  boat.  The  fish 
was  a  cock -fish,  and  weighed  SSj  lb.  After 
examining  him  we  came  to  the  conclusion  that  he 
was  about  the  same  size  as  the  one  I  had  lost  in 
the  preceding  year,  but  probably  longer.  He  had 
evidently  been  wounded  in  his  side  by  a  seal  a 
fortnight  previously,  and  though  this  wound  had 
healed,  it  must  have  caused  the  fish  to  lose  several 
pounds'  weight.  When  hung  up  beside  the  other 
fish  of  214  lb.  and  18 J  lb.  he  looked  huge,  and 
had  the  advantage  of  some  inches  over  my  little 
grandson,  who  was  nearly  five  years  old.  His 
length  was  50|  inches  and  girth  24  inches,  and  had 
it  not  been  for  the  wound  inflicted  by  the  seal  he 
would,  no  doubt,  have  turned  the  scale  well  over 
40  lb.  So  ended  what  was  for  me  a  day  never  to 
be  forgotten.     I  had  six  more  days'  fishing,  and 


HE   HAL)   THE  ADVANTAGE  OF  SOME   INCHES   OVER   .MV   LITTLE  GRANDSON, 
WHO  WAS  NEARLY   FIVE  YEARS  OLD." 


From  a  Photograph  by  Mrs.  Xoel  Wills. 


THE  LUCK  OF  SALMON  FISHING  91 

killed  five  more  fish,  two  of  them  with  the  fly. 
The  other  five  fish  weighed  22^  lb.,  17i  lb., 
17|-  lb.,  16|  lb.,  and  ISj  lb.  respectively. 

Strange  that  I  should  have  had  such  good  luck. 
Strange,  surely,  that  though  others  far  more 
skilful  and  experienced  than  I  am  should  have 
fished  the  same  beats  in  that  river  and  fished  many 
more  days  than  I  did  in  each  year,  such  a  great 
fish  should  have  come  my  way  in  two  successive 
Aprils,  on  each  occasion  by  far  the  largest  seen 
or  heard  of  in  the  season  on  the  beat  in  question. 
An  old  friend  of  mine,  who  has  fished  the  same 
river  for  many  years,  and  is  an  angler  of  great 
experience  and  success,  told  me  that  he  has  never 
killed  any  fish  in  that  river  or  anywhere  else  larger 
than  25  lb.  Surely,  indeed,  I  was  the  spoilt  child 
of  the  fishing  deities. 

At  the  close  of  this  red-letter  day  two  thoughts 
crossed  my  mind — first,  whether  the  fact  that  so 
many  of  my  kind  friends  had  earnestly  wished  that 
I  might  on  this  occasion  kill  a  fish  as  large  as  the 
one  I  had  lost  a  year  ago  had  really  been  a  factor 
in  my  good  luck.  Who  can  tell  ?  The  other 
thought  which  crossed  my  mind  last  year  also 
when  the  great  fish  parted  company  with  me  was 
that  every  fisherman  must  surely  be  "  a  man  that 


92  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

fortune's  buffets  and  rewards  has  ta'en  with  equal 
thanks."  Yet,  as  one  of  the  keenest  fishermen 
and  gillies  I  have  ever  known,  and  who  has  now 
gone  to  his  long  home,  used  to  say,  "  It's  easy 
talking  and  no  easy  doing." 

A  few  days  later  my  host  added  still  more  to 
my  indebtedness  to  him  by  giving  one  of  my 
daughters,  who  had  never  killed  a  salmon,  though 
a  very  successful  angler  for  big  trout,  the  chance 
of  trying  the  river. 

On  her  first  and  second  days  she  drew  a  blank, 
but  on  the  third  day  killed  three  fish  weighing 
20  lb.,  19  lb.,  and  15  lb.,  all  on  the  same  fly, 
a  silver  doctor.  Who  says  there  is  nothing  in 
luck  ?  The  day  I  killed  my  big  fish  was  the  third 
day  in  the  third  week  of  the  third  month  of  the 
fishing  season  ;  he  was  the  third  fish  killed  on 
that  day,  and  I  hooked  him  at  my  third  cast.  My 
daughter  killed  her  three  fish  on  the  third  day  she 
was  fishing.  Well  might  Falstaff  {Merry  Wives 
of  Windsor y  Act  V.,  Sc.  1)  say  :  "  This  is  the  third 
time — I  hope  luck  lies  in  odd  numbers."  My 
daughter's  performance  was  far  more  satisfactory 
in  every  way  than  mine,  for  fishing  with  the  fly  is, 
of  course,  incomparably  superior  to  fishing  with 
the  minnow — at  least,  nearly  every  angler  I  have 


THE  LUCK  OF  SALMON  FISHING  93 

met  says  so.  I  venture  to  think,  however,  that  my 
friend,  Arthur  Chaytor,  K.C.,  one  of  the  most 
accomphshed  and  skilful  of  salmon  fishers,  in  his 
delightful  book.  Letters  to  a  Salmon  -  Fisher' s 
Sons,  is  altogether  too  severe  in  his  castigation 
of  minnow -fishing.  "  Avoid  minnow-fishing  for 
salmon,"  he  says  (page  89),  "  as  a  canker  that  will 
eat  into  some  of  the  very  best  days  of  your  fly- 
fishing." But  need  it  do  so  ?  "  It  is  a  dangerous 
thing  for  you  to  begin  its  use." 

Then  in  a  most  entertaining  passage  he 
describes  how  "  the  river  has  cleared  and  has 
become  perfect  for  the  fly.  It  ought  to  be  a  tip- 
top day,  but  you  are  tempted  of  the  devil  to  try 
just  for  an  hour  the  phantom  minnow  .  .  .  and  then 
you  go  on  with  the  minnow  all  the  day  long  .  .  . 
dragging  out  the  fish  .  .  .  and  at  the  end  of  the 
day  feeling  that  you  have  been  rather  a  butcher 
than  a  fisherman  and  that  you  might  almost  as 
well  have  used  a  net."  This  means,  of  course, 
that  success  in  minnow-fishing  is  simply  a  matter 
of  luck,  and  does  not  depend  on  the  fisherman's 
skill.  In  a  later  passage  he  describes  in  most 
forcible  and  amusing  language  "  the  relapse  to 
minnow,  when  after  a  good  day  minnowing  you 
find  next   morning  that   the   water  is   right   for 


94  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

the  fly  and  you  resolve  to  make  it  a  day  of  fly  only. 
You  put  on  your  best  fly  and  you  begin,  full  of 
hope.  For  an  hour  or  two  you  cover  much  water 
without  a  single  rise,  and  you  begin  to  doubt 
whether  the  fish  mean  to  take  at  all  to-day.  Soon, 
just  to  see  whether  they  will  move  at  all,  you  put 
up  the  spinning-rod  just  merely  to  have  one  try 
down  the  pool.  A  fish  takes  the  accursed  thing 
and  you  are  lost.  Abandoning  all  sense  of 
decency,  you  pursue  the  horrible  craft,  and  at 
dusk  you  stagger  back  to  the  fishing-hut  with 
half  a  dozen  great  fish  upon  your  back  and  with 
your  conscience  hanging  about  the  neck  of  your 
heart,  which  keeps  on  protesting  in  vain  that  this 
was  really  no  day  for  the  fly." 

Even  Chaytor,  however,  admits  that  "in  a 
cold,  wet  season,  when  the  river  is  in  flood 
for  weeks  together,  with  only  odd  days  when 
fishing  is  possible,  the  minnow  can  be  really  and 
legitimately  useful."  On  the  other  hand,  in 
contrast  to  the  above  warnings  and  diatribes, 
Mr.  J.  Arthur  Hutton,  who  is  so  well  known, 
particularly  in  connection  with  the  Wye,  and  is, 
of  course,  a  most  experienced  and  successful 
salmon  fisher,  as  well  as  one  of  the  most  learned 
in  the  life-history  of  the  salmon,  describes  spui- 


THE  LUCK  OF  SALMON  FISHING  95 

ning  for  salmon  as  "a  form  of  fishing  requiring 
a  very  large  amount  of  skill  and  experience 
which  may  provide  one  with  sport  on  those 
many  occasions  when  the  fly  is  useless  .  .  . 
a  fine  art  which  requires  much  practice  and 
long  experience,  far  more  so  than  fly-fishing." 
"  For  every  good  hand  with  the  spinning- rod," 
he  says,  "  you  may  find  twenty  who  are  excellent 
fly-fishermen," 

I  remember  a  friend  of  mine  in  the  north, 
whose  old  keeper  had  been  with  the  family  for 
many  years  and  known  him  since  his  boyhood, 
telling  me  that  he  knew  so  well  the  old  man's 
contempt  for  and  abhorrence  of  minnow-fishing 
that  he  did  not  dare  to  use  the  minnow  when  the 
old  man  was  out  with  him,  and  never  allowed  him 
to  know  that  he  did  use  it.  This  old  keeper 
would  have  applied  Chay tor's  epithets  to  minnow- 
fishing  on  every  occasion,  but  would  never  have 
agreed  with  him  for  a  moment  that  even  on  rare 
occasions  it  can  be  legitimately  used. 

Those  like  the  old  keeper — and  I  doubt  if  in 
these  days  there  are  many  such — might,  to  use 
Mr.  Hutton's  words,  "  seriously  consider  whether 
they  might  not  add  largely  to  their  sport  and  also 
to  their  opportunities  of  fishmg  by  learning  to 


96  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

spin  for  salmon.  The  river  is  not  always  in  fly 
order  ;  there  are  many  occasions  on  which  the 
water  is  too  high  or  too  much  coloured  for  the 
fly  when  salmon  might  be  caught  with  a  minnow 
or  other  bait.  In  the  same  way,  in  deep  sluggish 
pools,  when  it  is  almost  impossible  to  work  a 
fly  effectively,  a  bait  properly  used  may  effect 
wonders." 

What,  then,  is  the  conclusion  of  the  whole 
matter  ?  It  is  this,  paraphrasing  the  words  of  the 
famous  authority  on  all  things  piscatorial,  Mr. 
II.  T.  Sheringham  :  "  It  is  certain  that  good 
luck  is  the  most  vital  part  of  the  equipment  of 
him  who  would  seek  to  slay  the  big  (salmon). 
For  some  men  I  admit  the  usefulness  of  skill  and 
pertinacity  ;  for  myself  I  take  my  stand  entirely 
on  luck." 


y. 

O     2 

<         2 


-3     > 


'■'^U 


VIII 


A  STORMY  WEEK  IN  THE  FOREST 


Amongst  my  stalking  experiences  I  shall  always 
remember  a  week  which  I  once  had  early  one 
season  in  a  famous  forest  on  the  west  coast, 
through  the  kindness  of  my  friend  the  proprietor, 
to  whom  I  have  been  indebted  for  many  excel- 
lent days'  sport.  I  have  had  long  experience  in 
stalking,  but  have  never  known  worse  weather 
than  we  had  in  this  particular  week.  The  rifles 
consisted  of  my  host,  Stuart  a  fellow-guest,  and 
myself.  I  was  out  stalking  six  days.  On  Thurs- 
day, our  first  day,  we  killed  five  stags  between  us. 
My  host  and  Stuart  each  got  two,  while  I  got  one. 
So  far  as  my  experiences  on  that  day  were  con- 
cerned, I  had  no  opportunity  of  a  shot  until  near 

97  13 


98  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

the  end  of  the  day,  when  we  came  upon  two  stags, 
one  of  which  I  shot.  As  it  was  late  in  the  day 
and  I  had  only  one  pony,  I  did  not  shoot  at  the 
second  stag.  The  following  Friday,  Saturday, 
and  Monday  were  terrible  days  of  mist  and  storm. 
The  mist  never  left  the  tops  of  the  mountains  all 
day  long,  although  there  was  a  strong  wind 
blowing — it  appeared  to  come  up  from  the  sea  in 
great  banks  ;  and  although  we  waited  on  each  day 
for  it  to  clear  off,  we  did  so  in  vain.  On  Friday 
and  Saturday  I  never  had  a  shot. 

On  Monday,  until  late  in  the  day,  it  looked  as 
though  I  was  to  have  the  same  experience.  About 
four  o'clock,  however,  having  been  lying  on  a 
ridge  overlooking  a  wide,  deep  corrie,  the  mist 
suddenly  lifted  for  a  very  few  minutes  and  we  spied 
some  deer  moving  downwards  on  the  far  side  of 
the  corrie,  and  amongst  them  what  appeared  to 
be  two  or  three  good  stags.  There  were  also  a 
number  of  hinds  rather  nearer  to  us  than  this  lot 
of  deer.  We  decided  that  the  only  way  in  which 
we  should  be  likely  to  get  a  shot  at  the  stags 
would  be  to  go  right  round  the  upper  edge  of  the 
corrie  and  try  to  get  in  between  the  hinds  and 
the  other  lot  of  deer  amongst  which  were  the  stags. 
This  entailed  a  most  uncomfortable  walk  ;    the 


A  STORMY  WEEK  IN  THE  FOREST  99 

wind  was  so  strong  that  one  could  hardly  stand, 
it  was  quite  impossible  to  keep  a  cap  on  one's 
head,  and  it  rained  or  hailed  incessantly.  At  last 
we  got  round,  and  went  down  to  the  lower  ground ; 
we  then  managed,  with  a  good  deal  of  difficulty, 
to  crawl  safely  past  the  hinds,  and  found  that  the 
other  lot  of  deer  were  moving  slowly,  feeding 
downwards.  After  a  time  the  deer  lay  down  on 
a  small  hill  in  a  sheltered  place,  and  we  crawled  up 
to  the  top  of  an  adjoining  hill  about  140  yards 
distant.  We  there  made  out  that  there  was  one 
good  stag,  an  eight-pointer,  who  was  lying  down, 
and  whose  horns  only  could  be  seen  from  the 
place  where  we  were  lying.  I  got  into  position 
to  shoot  in  case  the  stag  should  rise  and  give 
me  a  chance.  It  was  now  about  half-past  five, 
and  we  thought,  considering  how  late  it  was 
getting  and  the  conditions  of  the  weather,  that 
we  should  not  be  kept  waiting  very  long.  The 
stag,  however,  did  not  move  for  about  half  an 
hour,  when  he  got  up  and  turned  round,  and 
immediately  lay  down  again.  Time  went  on,  and 
what  with  the  cold  and  wet  I  began  to  shiver,  and 
felt  that  I  must  do  something  to  alter  the  con- 
dition of  things.  It  w^as  close  on  6.30,  and  we 
were  five  miles  from  the  point  where  it  had  been 


100  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

arranged  that  Stuart  and  I  were  to  meet  the  car, 
if  possible,  at  six  o'clock,  and  in  any  case  not  later 
than  seven.  I  told  the  stalker  that  he  must  get 
the  deer  up  somehow  or  other,  and  that  he  had 
better  whistle  them  up  ;  he  strongly  advised  me 
not  to  do  this,  but  to  wait  a  little  longer,  as,  if  we 
did  so,  they  would  probably  bolt  and  not  give  me 
a  chance  to  shoot.  I,  however,  persisted,  and  said 
we  could  not  keep  Mr.  Stuart  waiting  any  longer ; 
besides,  I  was  getting  colder  and  colder.  I  there- 
fore whistled ;  the  deer  took  no  notice.  "  A  little 
louder,"  said  the  stalker.  I  whistled  louder.  Two 
of  the  smaller  stags  got  up,  and  then  the  eight- 
pointer  on  the  far  side  of  the  hill  slowly  got  up, 
looking  in  our  direction,  and  exposing  his  body 
over  the  edge  of  the  hill,  a  fair  broadside  shot, 
at  about  140  yards.  I  fired.  "  Just  over  his 
shoulder,"  said  the  stalker,  and  the  stag  still  stood, 
as  stags  often  will  do  when  the  bullet  passes 
over  them.  I  fired  again  and  the  stag  instantly 
fell.  "  Good  shot,"  said  the  stalker.  I  unloaded 
the  rifle  and  handed  it  to  the  stalker,  who  began 
to  put  it  into  its  cover,  when  suddenly  the  stag 
jumped  up  and  galloped  off.  The  bullet  had  no 
doubt  grazed  the  spine,  causing  temporary  uncon- 
sciousness.    When  a  stag  drops  instantaneously, 


A  STORMY  WEEK  IN  THE  FOREST         101 

as  this  one  did,  he  is  often  only  stunned,  and 
it  is  well  to  be  on  the  alert  and  get  up  to  him 
at  once,  ready  if  necessary  to  shoot  again.  This 
was  no  new  experience  to  either  of  us.  The  old 
stalker  had  been  over  fifty  years  in  the  forest  and 
had  seen  the  same  thing  happen  many  a  time ; 
nor  was  it  new  to  me.  We  watched  the  stag  as  he 
galloped  away  apparently  none  the  worse  for  his 
narrow  escape,  and  I  certainly  felt  very  foolish. 
The  old  stalker  kindly  began  to  make  excuses 
for  me.  "  The  line  was  right,  but  you  were 
just  a  little  high,"  he  said.  "  Your  pozeesyon 
was  not  good.  You  had  been  lying  long,  cold 
and  shivering,  in  the  wet.  Yon  cartridges  are 
lighter  than  yer  regular  ones,  and  that  is  why 
you  shot  over  him."  "  No,  no,"  I  replied,  "  I 
missed  because  I  could  not  shoot  straight ;  it  is 
a  bad  business  ;  anyhow,  it  is  better  than  having 
wounded  him  badly  and  then  lost  him  ;  it  is  a 
comfort  to  think  he  is  really  very  little  the  worse — 
now  we  have  got  to  get  back  as  quickly  as  ever 
we  can."  And  then  in  the  gloom  and  mist, 
running  and  walking  and  tumbling,  away  we 
went.  The  last  mile  was  down  a  hill  path  filled 
with  loose  stones.  At  last  we  reached  the  end  of 
the  road,  and  saw  the  car  coming  up  from  a  pomt 


102  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

about  a  mile  lower  down  the  road  where  Stuart 
had  arranged  to  meet  us.  "  Well,"  I  said,  "  I 
hope  at  any  rate  that  Mr.  Stuart  has  got  a  stag, 
if  not  two."  The  stalker  had  been  looking  care- 
fully at  the  road.  "  No,"  he  said,  "  Mr.  Stuart 
has  no  stag  the  day."  I  said,  "  How  do  you  know 
that  ?  "  "  Oh,"  he  said,  pointing  to  the  marks 
on  the  road,  "  his  ponies  have  gone  home  trotting 
— look  at  the  marks  of  their  hoofs — and  if  Mr. 
Stuart  had  got  a  stag  the  pony  would  be  walking." 
As  soon  as  the  car  arrived  we  found  that  the 
stalker  was  right,  and  that  Stuart,  who  had  only 
arrived  at  our  meeting-place  a  few  minutes  before, 
had  got  no  stag,  never  having  had  a  shot.  On 
reaching  the  lodge  about  8.30  p.m.  we  found  that 
our  host  had  not  yet  returned  from  the  river, 
where  he  had  gone  to  try  to  get  a  salmon,  and  it 
was  not  until  an  hour  later  that  he  returned.  He 
too  had  had  bad  luck,  having  hooked  a  large  fish 
which  it  was  impossible  to  follow,  and  which  had 
taken  out  in  its  first  rush  at  a  terrific  pace  some 
fifty  yards  of  line,  and  then,  a  strain  being  put  on, 
broke  the  casting  line,  which,  it  subsequently 
turned  out,  had  been  used  in  the  spring  fishing 
and  had  not  been  properly  tested  before  being 
used  again.     Thus  closed  the  third  chapter  in  a 


A  STORMY  WEEK  IN  THE  EOREST        103 

day  which  illustrated  the  truth  of  the   proverb 
that  "  misfortunes  never  come  singly." 

The  followmg  day,  Tuesday,  showed  no  signs 
of  improvement  in  the  weather.  Thick  mist  on 
the  tops,  steady  rain,  and  a  wind,  as  usual,  in  the 
wrong  direction.  Stuart  was  obliged  to  drive 
some  miles  off  to  see  a  friend,  but  I  determined 
once  more  to  try  the  hill.  This  time  I  was  sent 
out  on  the  home  beat.  I  started  off  with  the 
stalker  and  an  old  gillie  named  Angus,  who  had 
had  so  much  experience  that  he  would  have  made 
an  admirable  stalker,  and  who  is  always  very  keen. 
I  also  had  two  ponies  and  a  pony  boy.  The  pony 
path  goes  straight  up  the  mountain-side  for  two 
and  a  half  miles.  By  the  time  we  reached  the 
point  where  the  path  stopped  we  were  close  to  the 
edge  of  the  mist,  and  the  outlook  seemed  hopeless. 
We  decided  to  cross  over  the  opposite  hill  and 
go  down  on  the  other  side,  hoping  that  by  that 
time  the  mist  might  have  lifted.  We  left  instruc- 
tions with  the  pony  boy  to  wait  for  two  hours, 
and  then  if  he  heard  nothing  from  us  to  go  back 
right  round  to  a  point  on  the  other  side  of  the  hill 
and  wait  there.  On  our  way  up  the  hill  I  found 
some  beautiful  little  bastard  pimpernel  in  flower, 
not  very  common  in  this  part  of  the  country.     As 


104  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

we   worked   our  way  up   the   mountain-side   the 
wind  became  stronger  and  the  rain  heavier.     It 
was  intensely  cold,  and  very  difficult  to  see  what 
was  in  front  of  us.     Having  arrived  at  the  ridge, 
nearly  3000  feet  up,  we  tried  to  spy  the  corrie 
below.      What    with    the    tremendous   wind   and 
driving   rain   this   was   a   matter   of  the   greatest 
difficulty,  and  in  conditions  of  this  kind  I  always 
think  there  is  a  better  chance  of  picking  up  deer 
with  first-rate  field-glasses  than  with  a  telescope. 
I  managed,  wdth  my  field-glasses,  to  discover  two 
stags  feeding  in  a  sheltered  part  of  the  opposite 
side  of  the  corrie,  and,  after  shifting  our  position 
in  order  to  get  a  better  view  of  them,  we  found 
that  there  were  some  hinds  feeding  below  them. 
We  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  only  chance 
of  obtaining  a  shot  at  the  stags  was  by  getting 
in   between   them   and   the   hinds.     After   some 
trouble    we    succeeded    in    doing    this,    but    old 
Angus,  who  knew  the  corrie  well,  said  that  the 
wind  at  this  place  was  very  uncertain,   and  that 
it  was  a  question  whether  the  stags  would   not 
get  our  wind.     He  had  hardly  uttered  this  warn- 
ing before  there  was  a  fatal  puff  in  the  wrong 
direction,  and  away  went  the   stags  long  before 
we  were  near  them.     We  decided  to  go  on  and 


$ti      5 


X      < 


A  STORMY  WEEK  IN  THE  FOREST        105 

try  the  next  corrie.  It  is  difficult  to  imagine 
a  greater  contrast  than  the  comparative  warmth 
and  peace  which  we  were  now  enjoying  as  com- 
pared with  the  strife  of  the  elements  outside  the 
corrie.  The  rain,  too,  had  stopped,  and  I  said 
to  the  stalker,  "  No  wonder  the  deer  came  here  ; 
what  a  haven  of  rest !  " 

We  now  worked  our  way  across  the  ridge,  and 
then  spied  the  big  corrie  below.  We  discovered 
two  lots  of  stags.  Those  in  the  first  lot  were 
moving  on.  The  others  were  lying  down  in  a 
place  where  they  could  be  stalked  without  much 
difficulty ;  we  therefore  crawled  some  400  or 
500  yards,  and,  creeping  cautiously  up  to  the  top 
of  a  little  hill,  saw  the  stags  had  got  up  and  begun 
to  feed.  There  was  one  quite  clean  about  90 
yards  below  us,  and  another  also  clean  about 
130  yards  from  where  we  were  lying.  I  fired  at 
the  near  stag,  who  fell  dead  at  once  ;  I  then 
covered  the  other  stag  and  pulled  the  second 
trigger  —  result  a  missfire.  I  hastily  reloaded 
and  fired,  killing  the  stag.  We  then  went  down 
to  the  stags  which  I  had  shot.  The  first  was  a 
six-pointer,  whose  horns  and  teeth  showed  him 
to  be  an  old  warrior.  The  second,  a  nine-pointer, 
was  a  younger  beast,  rather  heavier.     Both  stags 

14 


106  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

were  in  good  condition,  and  weighed  13  st.  9  lb. 
and  14  St.  3  lb.  clean.  After  gralloching  the  stags, 
we  dragged  them  down  the  hill  to  a  point  from 
which  we  could  signal  to  the  pony  boy.  The 
ponies  had  long  been  used  for  carrying  stags,  and 
stood  quietly  whilst  the  stags  were  put  on  them. 
We  soon  reached  the  pony  path,  and  after  a  walk 
of  five  miles  reached  the  lodge. 

The  following  day,  Wednesday,  it  rained  and 
blew  all  day,  and  the  mists  hung  low  on  the 
mountains,  so  that  it  was  quite  useless  to  attempt 
any  stalking. 

The  next  day,  Thursday,  was  the  last  day  of  my 
visit  and  that  of  Stuart.  Stuart  was  particularly 
anxious  to  kill  one  more  stag  in  the  company  of 
the  second  stalker,  because  he  had  killed  his  first 
stag  in  his  company  sixteen  years  ago  in  this 
forest,  and  had  since  then  killed  forty-eight  stags 
in  various  forests.  The  day  looked  anything  but 
propitious  ;  there  was  mist  and  rain,  and  the 
wind  was  again  in  the  wrong  quarter.  My  host 
said  he  would  go  fishing  up  the  glen  ;  Stuart  was 
sent  to  try  one  of  the  far  beats  in  the  company  of 
his  old  friend  the  second  stalker,  whilst  I  was  left 
to  try  the  home  beat  again.  As  we  went  up  the 
hill  the  mist  gradually  lifted,  and  we  saw  two  huge 


A  STORMY  WEEK  IN  THE  FOREST        107 

golden  eagles  circling  round  and  round.  We  saw 
no  deer  up  to  two  o'clock  ;  but  whilst  taking 
lunch  we  suddenly  saw  several  stags  coming  round 
the  side  of  a  distant  hill.  We  hastily  finished  our 
lunch  and  set  out  on  what  proved  to  be  a  long  and 
exciting  stalk.  From  time  to  time  we  had  to 
remain  lying  perfectly  flat,  not  daring  to  move  a 
muscle.  Once  we  thought  every  chance  of  success 
was  gone,  for  an  old  cock-grouse  rose  with  his 
"  Go-back,"  "  Go-back,"  as  we  were  nearing  the 
rock  from  which  we  hoped  to  get  a  shot.  The 
sun,  of  which  we  had  seen  nothing  for  so  long, 
kept  coming  out  and  going  in  again.  On  a  long 
stalk  of  this  kind  it  is  extraordinary  what  one 
sees  and  how  ineffaceable  is  the  memory  of  these 
sights — the  eagle  circling  over  the  high  tops  not 
far  distant;  the  blue  hare  leisurely  making  off, 
then  stopping,  sitting  up  and  looking  back ;  the 
ptarmigan,  so  beautiful  in  its  mottled  plumage, 
running  in  front  of  us,  stopping  now  and  again 
and  peering  around;  the  old  cock-grouse  rising 
with  his  warning  described  above,  which  too 
often  brings  the  stalk  to  an  untimely  end;  the 
many  insects,  some  of  them  so  strange  and  weird, 
that  we  see  as  we  lie  flat  gazing  into  a  clump  of 
grass  and  moss;   the  granite  boulders  sparklmg 


108  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

in  the  sunlight  as  if  studded  with  many  diamonds 
— most,  if  not  all,  of  these  things  I  saw  in  this 
particular  stalk.  Everything,  however,  comes  to 
an  end,  and  so  at  last  I  succeeded  in  getting  a  shot 
at  the  heaviest  of  the  stags,  who  was  standing  on 
the  side  of  a  very  rocky  and  precipitous  hill.  He 
ran  a  few  yards  and  fell  down  dead.  It  was, 
indeed,  fortunate  that  he  fell  where  he  did, 
caught  between  two  rocks,  for  immediately  below 
these  rocks  nothing  could  have  stopped  him  from 
rolling  down  a  precipice  of  several  hundred  feet, 
and,  as  old  Angus  said,  the  venison  would  not 
have  been  worth  taking  home  and  the  horns 
would  have  been  smashed  to  atoms.  The  stag, 
an  old  one  in  good  condition,  was  dragged  down 
to  a  place  where  the  pony  could  come  up,  and, 
leaving  Angus  to  find  and  help  the  pony  boy,  the 
stalker  and  I  started  to  work  our  way  homewards 
across  the  hill.  We  had  been  moving  slowly 
onwards,  spying  from  time  to  time,  when  we 
discovered  a  large  number  of  stags  feeding  below 
us.  A  circuitous  stalk  brought  us  up  to  them, 
but  in  a  very  awkward  position.  It  was  impossible 
to  get  a  shot,  except  by  coming  up  to  a  point  at 
the  top  of  the  hiQ  below  which  they  were  feeding, 
and  we  should  then  be  much  too  close  to  them. 


A  STORMY  WEEK  IN  THE  FOREST        109 

There  was,  however,  no  choice,  and  after  a 
cautious  crawl  we  reached  a  point  from  which 
we  could  see  the  horns  of  stags  moving  away  from 
us,  at  a  distance  of  not  more  than  30  yards. 
Crawling  as  flat  as  possible  to  the  top  of  the  little 
hill,  the  stalker  slowly  raised  his  head,  and  as 
slowly  lowered  it.  He  then  whispered  to  me, 
"  There's  a  fine  stag  there,  but  he  won't  wait 
long,  and  you'd  better  shoot  over  my  back."  I 
cautiously  raised  the  rifle  over  the  stalker's  back 
in  the  dii-ection  indicated,  and»  slowly  raising  my 
head,  saw  a  fine  stag,  with  a  good  head,  stand- 
ing broadside  on,  about  70  yards  away,  looking 
straight  at  me.  As  quickly  as  possible  I  covered 
the  stag's  heart  and  pulled  the  trigger  ;  there 
was  the  unmistakable  thud  as  the  bullet  struck 
the  stag,  who  instantly  turned  and  disappeared. 
"He'll  be  all  right,"  said  the  stalker;  "you 
don't  often  hear  a  bullet  strike  more  distinctly 
than  that  one  did,"  and  on  reaching  the  point 
where  the  stag  had  been  standing  we  saw  him 
about  80  yards  below,  lying  dead.  He  turned 
out  to  be  a  royal,  with  very  regular  points  and  a 
good  head,  although  he  was  going  back  and  had 
evidently  been  better.  Like  two  of  the  four  stags 
I  had  previously  shot,  he  was  an  ancient  warrior. 


110  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

The  mist,  which  had  temporarily  lifted,  now  came 
down  again  thicker  than  ever,  and  the  stalker  said 
that  we  should  have  an  awful  job  to  get  the  stag 
down,  as  it  was  a  heavy  one,  and  the  ground  was 
very  awkward.  We  gralloched  the  stag,  and  took 
out  the  heart  and  liver  in  order  to  make  him  as 
light  as  possible,  and  then  set  to  work  to  get  the 
stag  down.  This  was  a  very  heavy  job,  and  I 
could  not  help  thinking,  as  I  had  often  thought 
before,  what  an  excellent  thing  it  would  be  if 
every  one  who  is  going  to  stalk,  whether  pro- 
prietor, tenant,  or  guest,  were  obliged  some  time 
or  other  to  take  part  in  dragging  a  stag  to  the 
place  where  he  is  to  be  put  on  the  pony,  and 
help  in  putting  him  on  the  pony.  We  succeeded 
at  last  in  getting  the  stag  down,  and  the  stalker 
then  arranged  to  wait  on  the  pony  path  lower 
down,  in  order  to  meet  old  Angus  and  the  pony 
boy,  who  would  be  bringing  the  first  stag  I  had 
shot  and  the  ponies.  I  took  my  rifle,  the  luncheon 
bag,  and  the  sticks  and  glasses,  and  struck  across 
the  hill  for  the  lodge.  On  my  way  down  I  began 
to  speculate  as  to  the  age  of  the  two  old  stags  I 
had  shot  that  day,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
they  were  probably  not  less  than  fourteen  or 
fifteen  years  old.     The  old  Gaelic  saying,  which 


OLD  ANGUS   NEARING   HOME. 
By  V.  R.   Balfolr-Browne. 


A  STORMY  WEEK  IN  THE  FOREST        111 

shows  how  little  was  formerly  known  as  to  the 
age  of  a  stag,  came  into  my  mind  : 

Tri  aois  coin,  aois  cich  ; 
Tri  aois  eich,  aois  duine  ; 
Tri  aois  duine,  aois  feidh  ; 
Tri  aois  feidh,  aois  firein  ; 
Tri  aois  firein,  aois  dbaruicli, 

which  may  be  translated  : 

Thrice  dog's  age,  age  of  horse  ; 
Thrice  horse's  age,  age  of  man  ; 
Thrice  man's  age,  age  of  deer  ; 
Thrice  deer's  age,  age  of  eagle  ; 
Thrice  eagle's  age,  age  of  oak. 

It  is  probably  true  to  say  that  a  stag  in  its  wild 
state  rarely  lives  beyond  sixteen  or  seventeen 
years  of  age.  In  those  forests  w^hich  are  on 
islands,  for  example  Jura,  stalkers  have  unusual 
opportunities  of  observing  and  learning  the  history 
of  particular  stags,  and  I  recollect  when  stalking 
in  North  Jura  two  years  ago  discussing  this 
subject  wdth  John  Mackay,  the  head  stalker.  He 
told  me  that  he  had  several  times  been  familiar 
with  a  stag  all  through  its  life,  and  in  more  than 
one  instance  had  seen  a  stag  with  a  fine  head 
gradually  lose  its  points,  until  at  last  it  had  only 
comparatively  short  upright  narrow  horns  with 
two    short    brow   points,    the    stag   itself    losing 


112  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

steadily  both  in  size  and  weight  and  becoming 
very  light  in  colour. 

I  reached  the  lodge  about  6.30.  The  stags 
weighed  very  nearly  the  same  weight — 16  st.  2  lb. 
and  16st.  5  lb.  clean — the  royal  being  slightly 
heavier  than  the  other.  Our  host  returned  about 
eight  o'clock,  having  waited  an  hour  past  the 
time  at  which  he  had  arranged  to  meet  Stuart. 
The  car  was  sent  back  for  Stuart,  who,  however, 
did  not  reach  the  lodge  until  half-past  ten,  after 
a  very  long  and  strenuous  day.  He  had,  however, 
secured  his  fiftieth  stag  after  a  most  troublesome 
stalk.  He  was  not  able  to  get  his  shot  till  past 
seven  o'clock,  at  which  time  he  was  about  seven 
miles  from  the  lodge.  So  ended  a  most  delightful 
week's  sport,  notwithstanding  the  awful  weather 
which  we  had  had. 


IX 

A  SALMON  LOCH  IN  SUTHERLAND 

Fishermen's  stories  are  said  to  be  proverbially 
untrustworthy,  and  the  great  majority  of  people 
— at  any  rate  of  those  who  are  not  themselves 
fishermen — never  seem  to  suppose  that  in  the 
case  of  a  fisherman,  as  in  the  case  of  every  one 
else,  truth  may  sometimes  be  stranger  than 
fiction. 

I  have  been  a  fly-fisher  since  my  earliest  days, 
and  have  had  many  good  days  both  with  the 
salmon  and  the  trout,  but  I  have  never  had  a  day 
full  of  such  surprising  contrasts  as  the  day  which 
I  had  with  a  brother  of  mine  many  years  ago  in 
the  early  part  of  September,  on  a  loch  through 

113  15 


114  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

which  flows  one  of  the  best  of  the  smaller  salmon 
rivers  in  the  North  of  Scotland.  Strange  as 
were  the  events  of  that  day,  I  can  vouch  for  the 
absolute  veracity  of  the  following  story. 

The  loch  in  question  is  not  very  large,  and 
is  not  deep  in  any  part.  It  contains  a  good  many 
trout  about  three  to  the  pound,  and  at  certain 
periods  of  the  year  many  salmon.  We  had  a 
long  drive  from  X.,  where  we  were  staying,  and 
reached  the  loch  about  10  a.m.  We  had  with 
us  a  gillie,  a  salmon-fisher  of  long  experience  and 
a  typical  Highlander,  in  height  about  6  ft.  3  in., 
whose  name,  like  his  hair,  was  Sandy.  We  had 
not  expected  to  have  any  salmon-fishing  while 
we  were  at  X.,  but  fortunately  I  happened  to 
have  with  me  my  salmon  rod  as  well  as  a  trout  rod, 
and  we  arranged  on  this  day  that  we  would  fish 
with  the  two  rods  alternately,  and  that  as  soon 
as  one  of  us  caught  a  salmon  the  other  would 
take  the  salmon  rod. 

When  we  arrived  at  the  loch  there  was  a  good 
breeze  blowing  from  the  west,  with  no  sun.  We 
put  a  medium-sized  "  Jock  Scott  "  on  the  salmon 
cast,  while  on  the  trout  cast  we  put,  as  a  tail  fly, 
a  queer,  nondescript  fly,  which  Sandy  fancied, 
and,  as  a  bob  fly,  a  "  March  Brown."     These  two 


A  SALMON  LOCH  IN  SUTHERLAND    115 

latter  flies  were  the  ordinary  medium-sized  loch- 
trout  flies,  and  we  thought  it  wiser,  as  we  knew 
that  there  were  a  lot  of  salmon  in  the  loch,  to 
put  only  two  flies  on  the  trout  cast.  My  brother 
began  fishing  with  the  salmon  rod  in  the  stern  of 
the  boat,  while  I  tried  in  the  bow  for  trout.  I 
very  soon  rose  three  or  four  trout,  and  managed 
to  secure  two,  but  my  brother  had  no  luck  with 
the  salmon.  We  had  not  been  fishing  for  more 
than  half  an  hour  when  the  wind  went  down 
and  the  sun  came  out.  The  surface  of  the  loch 
became  absolutely  calm,  just  like  a  sheet  of  glass, 
and  fishing  appeared  to  be  hopeless.  The  salmon 
now  began  to  jump  in  diff'erent  parts  of  the  loch, 
and,  although  Sandy  said  it  was  perfectly  useless, 
we  kept  trying  to  cast  over  them.  At  length, 
however,  we  gave  it  up,  and  sat  waiting  for  the 
breeze.  Suddenly  a  salmon  rose  about  twenty 
yards  from  the  boat.  I  said,  "  Come  on,  Sandy, 
put  me  over  that,"  and,  taking  up  the  salmon 
rod,  proceeded  to  cast  over  the  place  where  the 
salmon  had  risen.  With  great  difficulty  I  got 
the  line  out,  as  it  was  dead  calm.  I  cast  once, 
twice,  and  for  a  third  time,  and  just  as  I  was 
getting  to  the  end  of  my  cast  on  the  third  attempt, 
up  came  the  salmon,  rising  apparently  not  with 


116  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

the  intention  of  taking  the  fly,  but  with  the 
intention  of  drowning  it.  I  struck  at  him  and 
hooked  him,  as  we  discovered  later,  by  the  tail, 
and  a  very  lively  time  he  gave  me.  He  played 
for  about  twenty-five  minutes,  during  which  time 
he  never  showed  himself,  and  we  all  thought  he 
was  much  larger  than  he  turned  out  to  be.  He 
was  a  nice  clean  fish  about  Gj  lb.  By  the  time 
we  got  him  in  the  wind  had  risen,  and  we  began 
to  fish  again,  my  brother  taking  the  salmon  rod, 
whilst  I  fished  with  the  trout  rod  from  the  bow. 
I  had  not  been  fishing  for  more  than  a  few  minutes 
before  I  rose  something  which  did  not  show 
itself.  I  struck,  and  exclaimed,  "  I've  hooked 
him  !  "  Away  went  the  line  off  my  reel  for  about 
thirty  yards,  and  at  the  end  of  this  run  the  fish,  a 
salmon  which  looked  considerably  larger  than  the 
one  we  had  already  caught,  jumped  right  out  of 
the  water,  high  into  the  air.  Then  began  the 
longest  and  most  exciting  struggle  I  have  ever 
had  with  any  fish.  The  rod  with  which  I  was 
fishing  was  a  light  11 -feet  trout  rod  ;  the  cast  was 
a  medium-sized  trout  cast,  and  I  had  on  my  reel 
about  forty  to  fifty  yards  of  medium-sized  trout- 
line.  There  is  no  doubt  that  I  should  have 
several  times  lost  the  fish  had  it  not  been  for  the 


A  SALMON  LOCH  IN  SUTHERLAND        117 

extraordinary  skill  and  speed  with  which  Sandy 
followed  him  and  managed  the  boat.  Three 
times  nearly  all  my  line  was  taken  out,  and  once 
I  had  only  a  few  inches  left  on  my  reel.  After  his 
first  rush  the  fish  plunged  deep  down,  and  for  a 
time  adopted  boring  tactics.  I  was  able  to  recover 
most  of  the  line  he  had  taken  out,  and  then  he 
made  another  run  and  a  jump,  and  for  some  time 
after  that  we  followed  him  over  the  loch.  On 
two  occasions  he  made  the  most  determined 
efforts  to  get  into  some  weeds,  and  it  was  only  by 
keeping  a  very  severe  strain  upon  him  that  I 
managed  to  keep  clear  of  them.  I  never  played  a 
fish  which  jumped  so  many  times  or  sulked  less. 
On  one  occasion,  after  taking  a  large  amount  of 
my  line,  he  suddenly  turned  and  headed  straight 
back  again  for  the  boat,  and  although  Sandy  did 
all  he  could  to  keep  out  of  his  way,  the  fish 
startled  us  at  the  end  of  his  mad  run  by  jump- 
ing suddenly  clean  out  of  the  water  within  three 
or  four  yards  of  the  boat,  and  falling  with  a 
tremendous  splash. 

Do  what  I  could  I  did  not  seem  to  have 
any  real  effect  on  the  fish,  who  seemed  to  do 
almost  exactly  as  he  liked  with  me,  except  on 
the  two  occasions  when  he  tried  to  get  into  the 


118  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

weeds,  when,  expecting  every  minute  that  we 
might  part  company,  I  was  determined,  whatever 
happened,  that  he  should  come  where  I  wished 
him  to  come. 

We  saw  that  the  fish  had  taken  the  bob  fly, 
and  this  added  to  my  apprehensions,  as  I  was 
afraid,  particularly  as  I  knew  the  loch  was  not 
deep,  that  the  tail  fly  would  catch  in  something 
at  the  bottom  of  the  loch,  and  there  would  then 
be  a  catastrophe.  Time  wore  on,  and  my  back 
and  arms  began  to  ache  most  prodigiously. 
Still  the  fish  seemed  as  strong  as  ever.  My 
brother  said  he  must  have  some  lunch,  and  when- 
ever Sandy  and  I  got  the  chance  we  managed  to 
eat  some  sandwiches.  I  began  to  wonder  how 
much  longer  the  fly  would  hold,  and  whether 
this  fish  would  prove  to  be  one  more  of  the  many 
good  fish  lost  through  the  fly  working  out  at  the 
end  of  a  long  fight. 

I  could  do  nothing  except  hold  on  for  all  I 
was  worth,  keeping  as  tight  a  line  as  I  could,  and, 
of  course,  lowering  the  point  of  the  rod  whenever 
the  fish  jumped,  as  he  frequently  did.  As  time 
went  on,  however,  the  rushes  made  by  the  fish 
were  not  so  long,  and  he  seemed,  at  last,  to  have 
abandoned  his  leaping  tactics,  which  had  given 


A  SALMON  LOCH  IN  SUTHERLAND        119 

me  so  much  anxiety  in  the  earlier  stages  of  tlie 
struggle.  The  fish  was  gradually  becoming  ex- 
hausted, and  the  strain  on  the  rod  and  line 
seemed  to  be  much  greater.  "  He'll  be  turning 
soon,  I'm  thinking,"  said  Sandy.  The  end, 
one  way  or  the  other,  could  surely  not  be  far  off 
now,  and  we  discussed  the  question  whether  or 
not  we  should  try  to  land,  but,  on  the  whole,  we 
thought  we  had  better  not  run  the  risk  of  getting 
into  very  shallow  water.  At  last  the  fish  turned 
on  his  side,  though  he  quickly  righted  himself 
and  made  another  short  run.  Sandy  had  got 
the  boat  in  about  three  feet  of  water,  a  few  yards 
from  the  bank  ;  he  handed  the  oars  to  my  brother, 
seized  the  gaff,  and  got  out  of  the  boat.  I 
slowly  reeled  in  my  line ;  there  was  another 
short  rush  from  the  fish,  and  again  I  reeled  him 
up.  Nearer  and  nearer  he  came  to  the  boat,  and 
again  turned  on  his  side.  Suddenly,  in  less  time 
than  it  takes  to  tell,  Sandy  had  the  gaflp  into  him, 
and  was  struggling  to  the  shore.  Safely  landed, 
the  fish  was  speedily  given  his  coup  de  grace. 
He  was  a  very  red  male  fish,  weighing  rather  over 
lOj  lb.,  and  I  had  hooked  him  in  the  hard  part 
of  his  upper  jaw,  which  accounted  partly  for  the 
fact  that  I  had  so  little  power  over  him,  and  also 


120  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

for  the  fact  that  the  hook  had  kept  its  hold  so 
well.  "  Now  then,  Sandy,"  I  said,  as  I  got  out 
my  flask,  "  if  any  man  ever  deserved  a  drop  of 
good  whisky,  you  do."  "  Shlainte  "  (Gaelic 
for  "  Your  good  health  "),  said  Sandy.  "  It  was 
a  grand  fight,  sir  ;  I've  never  seen  a  better." 
"  How  long  do  you  think  you  were  playing 
him  ?  "  said  my  brother.  "  Somewhere  about  an 
hour,  I  should  think,"  I  replied.  "  Four  hours 
and  six  minutes,"  he  said.  "  I  looked  at  my 
watch  when  you  hooked  him,  and  it  was  then 
just  a  minute  or  two  before  half-past  one ;  and  I 
looked  at  my  watch  when  Sandy  gaffed  him — it 
was  then  twenty-five  minutes  to  six.  I  counted 
the  number  of  times  the  fish  jumped,  and  it 
was  seventeen.  I  don't  suppose  you  noticed  it," 
he  added,  "  but  there  was  a  cart  going  off  with 
peats,  near  the  loch,  soon  after  you  began  to  play 
the  fish,  and  it  came  back  again  not  long  ago." 
We  heard  afterwards  that  the  men  in  the  cart 
thought  I  was  playing  another  fish  when  they 
passed  us  on  their  return  journey. 

The  light  was  going  as  we  pushed  the  boat  out 
again.  I  handed  the  salmon  rod  to  my  brother, 
and  he  began  to  fish  from  the  stern  of  the  boat, 
while  I  fished  again  from  the  bow  with  the  trout 


A  SALMON  LOCH  IN  SUTHERLAND        121 

rod.  Sandy  allowed  the  boat  to  drift  slowly 
along  the  edge  of  some  weeds.  I  do  not  think 
that  I  had  more  than  three  or  four  casts  when, 
just  as  I  was  nearing  the  end  of  my  cast,  a  salmon, 
which  looked  as  bright  as  silver,  and  about  the 
same  size  as  the  one  we  had  just  killed,  rose  at 
my  tail  fly,  with  a  head  and  tail  rise  as  if  it  meant 
business  ;  and,  as  it  turned  to  go  down,  I  felt 
the  hook  go  home.  The  fish  did  not  run,  but 
worked  about  near  the  surface  of  the  water,  close 
to  the  weeds,  as  if  it  did  not  realise  that  it  was 
hooked  at  all.  "  Back  the  boat  quickly,  sir," 
said  Sandy,  handing  the  oars  to  my  brother,  and 
seizing  the  gaff.  My  brother  took  the  oars  and 
backed  the  boat  quickly  in  the  direction  of  the 
fish.  I  reeled  up  my  line  ;  there  was  a  momentary 
vision  of  about  three-quarters  of  Sandy  leaning 
out  of  the  boat,  a  tremendously  quick  lightning- 
like movement  of  the  gaff,  and  the  salmon,  gaff'ed 
with  extraordinary  skill  behind  the  shoulder,  was 
in  the  boat. 

I  do  not  think  that  more  than  four  minutes 
could  possibly  have  elapsed  from  the  time  that 
I  hooked  the  fish  to  the  time  it  was  in  the  boat. 
It  was  a  beautiful,  clean -run  female  fish,  with 
a  small  head,  and  in  perfect  condition.     It  was 

16 


122  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

very  lightly  hooked,  and  if  it  had  run  or  jumped 
at  all  it  would  almost  certainly  have  got  off.  It 
weighed  within  a  few  ounces  of  the  weight  of 
the  fish  which  had  given  me  such  a  tremendous 
battle,  and  yet,  owing  to  the  extraordinary  skill 
of  Sandy  with  the  gaff,  and  the  speed  with  which 
my  brother  had  acted,  this  fish  occupied  us  only 
as  many  minutes  as  the  other  one  had  hours  ! 

We  continued  to  fish  for  a  short  time,  but  it 
became  dark  so  rapidly  that  very  soon  we  had 
to  stop,  and  without  a  further  rise  of  any  kind. 


X 


THE  HOMING  INSTINCTS  OF 
WOUNDED  DEER 

In  these  days  one  hears  so  much  of  the  homing 
instincts  of  animals  and  birds  that  the  two 
following  authentic  instances  of  deer,  whose 
habits  are  not  so  generally  known  as  those  of 
some  other  animals,  may  be  of  interest. 

Stalkers,  and  those  who  know  the  habits  of  the 
red-deer,  know  well  that  a  stag  when  wounded 
will  seek  what  he  knows  from  experience  to  be 
a  haven  of  safety.  Thus,  if  he  has  come  in  the 
rutting    season    from    his    native    forest    and    is 

123 


124  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

wounded  on  other  ground,  he  will  assuredly  make 
for  the  sanctuary  in  that  forest.  So,  too,  if  he 
has  been  born  and  reared  in  a  particular  part  of 
the  forest  and  has  come  to  regard  that  place  as 
his  home,  he  will  struggle  to  reach  it  if  wounded. 
One  interesting  illustration  of  this  has  come 
within  my  own  experience,  and  another  was 
related  to  me  by  the  stalker  who  was  with  me 
on  the  occasion  referred  to. 

I  was  stalking  in  a  forest  upon  part  of  which 
unusual  conditions  prevailed.  That  part  which 
was  nearest  to  the  lodge  was  enclosed  by  a  deer 
fence,  but,  owing  to  careful  management,  and  the 
introduction  from  time  to  time  of  fresh  stock, 
there  are  some  very  good  heads  in  this  part  of  the 
forest.  I  always  prefer,  however,  when  I  have 
the  chance,  to  stalk  on  the  open  ground  outside 
tjie  fence,  although  it  means  harder  work,  as  it  is 
the  far  beat  and  part  of  it  is  on  very  high  and 
precipitous  ground.  It  has,  however,  this  gi-eat 
fascination — that  one  never  knows  what  sort  of 
stag  one  may  find  there.  The  forest  itself  is  an 
exceptionally  good  one,  and  marches  with  several 
of  the  finest  forests  in  the  Highlands. 

On  the  day  in  question  I  was  on  the  far  beat 
and  secured  a  good  stag  after  an  exciting  stalk. 


THE  SAXlUARV.    KIXLOCHEWE   FOREST. 

By    Fl.NLAV    MACKINNON. 


HOMING  INSTINCTS  OF  WOUNDED  DEER  125 

After  seeing  the  stag  safely  put  on  the  pony  in 
charge  of  the  gillie,  the  stalker  and  I  set  off 
towards  the  farther  end  of  the  beat  in  the  hope  of 
getting  a  second  stag.  Not  far  from  the  march, 
on  precipitous  ground  covered  with  rough 
boulders  of  rock,  we  spied  a  good  stag  with  a 
large  number  of  hinds.  The  deer  were  in  an 
awkward  position,  and  we  found  that  it  was 
impossible  to  get  nearer  to  them  than  about 
200  yards.  The  day  was  getting  late,  therefore 
this  was  probably  our  only  chance.  The  stag  was 
moving  about  and  might  very  soon  be  over  the 
march,  so  that  there  was  no  time  to  be  lost. 
Getting  quickly  into  the  best  position  I  could, 
I  fired,  and  evidently  hit  the  stag  very  hard. 
Directly  I  fired  the  deer  disappeared  as  if  by 
magic.  The  stalker  said  he  was  quite  certain 
the  stag  could  not  go  far.  On  reaching  the  spot 
on  which  the  stag  had  been  standing  when  I 
fired  we  found  marks  of  blood,  and  had  no  diffi- 
culty in  following  these  for  some  50  yards,  by 
which  time  we  were  close  to  the  march,  and  in 
full  view  of  a  large  corrie  and  other  ground,  all 
of  which  was  in  the  neighbouring  forest.  We 
saw  what  were  evidently  some  of  the  hinds  making 
off  across  the  march,  but  the  stag  and  the  rest 


12G  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

of  the  hinds  were  nowhere  to  be  seen.  We  moved 
a  little  farther  on  where  we  could  get  a  view  of 
other  ground,  when  suddenly  there  was  a  tre- 
mendous clatter  of  loose  stones,  and  we  saw  the 
stag  and  some  twenty  hinds  about  120  yards 
from  us.  The  deer  stopped  for  a  few  seconds, 
the  stag  looking  straight  at  us,  and  then  away  they 
went.  We  ran  quickly  to  the  point  where  they 
had  disappeared,  and  saw  the  hinds  we  had  last 
seen  with  the  stag  going  in  the  direction  which 
the  other  hinds  had  previously  taken,  but  the  stag 
was  not  with  them.  "  He  cannot  go  far,"  said 
the  stalker.  The  ground  was  very  much  broken 
up  by  large  stones  and  boulders,  and  we  both 
thought  that  the  stag  must  be  lying  hidden  not 
far  from  us.  We  were  quite  certain  from  the 
position  we  were  in  that  we  could  not  have  failed 
to  see  him  unless  he  had  turned  back  below  the 
hill  and  gone  into  the  forest  from  which  we  had 
come.  We  noticed  the  hinds  stopping  every  now 
and  then  and  looking  back,  as  they  so  often  do 
when  one  of  their  number  has  been  wounded  and 
is  behind  them.  By  following  the  marks  of  blood 
on  the  stones  we  traced  the  course  the  stag  had 
taken  for  about  200  yards,  but  after  that  we  lost 
the  tracks.    We  made  the  most  careful  search,  and 


HOMING  INSTINCTS  OF  WOUNDED  DEER  127 

the  stalker  went  some  distance  into  the  adjoin- 
ing forest,  but  all  in  vain.  The  light  was  begin- 
ning to  go,  and  at  last  we  decided  to  give  up  the 
search,  for  that  day  at  any  rate.  The  stalker,  who 
had  had  his  glass  on  the  stag  when  I  had  fired  at 
him,  said  he  was  quite  sure  from  what  he  saw  then 
and  from  the  way  that  the  stag  was  bleeding  that 
he  had  been  mortally  wounded  and  could  not  live 
long.  I  felt  very  much  depressed,  for  if  there 
is  one  thing  that  distresses  me  more  than  another 
it  is  to  leave  a  wounded  stag  on  the  ground ; 
and  though  I  thought  that  the  stalker  with  his 
experience  was  right  in  thinking  that  the  stag 
could  not  live  long,  particularly  as  I  knew  my 
rifle  and  felt  sure  that  I  must  have  hit  the  stag 
somewhere  not  far  from  the  heart,  the  fact 
remained  that  one  could  not  be  quite  sure  what 
had  really  happened.  This  was  the  last  day  of 
the  season,  and  I  was  leaving  on  the  following 
morning.  The  stalker  promised  me  that  he 
would  search  the  ground  on  the  following  day, 
and  that  he  would  also  tell  the  stalkers  in  the 
neighbouring  forest,  and  that  if  he  heard  anything 
of  the  stag  he  would  let  me  know.  "  I  shall 
certainly  know  the  head  if  it  is  ever  found,"  he 
said,  "  for  when  the  stag  looked  straight  at  me  I 


128  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

could  see  the  space  between  his  forks  at  the  top. 
It  was  a  ten-pointer,  I  think  ;  the  points  were 
very  regular,  but  as  far  as  the  head  goes  it  is  not 
much  to  grieve  over,  for  it  was  on  the  narrow 
side."  "  Still,  it  is  a  bad  business,"  I  replied. 
"  If  we  only  had  had  a  tracker  we  should  certainly 
have  got  him  without  any  trouble."  A  really 
reliable  tracker  is  indeed  invaluable  on  an  occasion 
of  this  kind,  but  it  is  only  in  a  few  forests  that 
dogs  are  now  used  in  following  wounded  stags. 
The  noble  deer-hounds  which  were  the  trusty 
allies  of  our  fathers  on  the  hill  have  during  the 
last  forty  or  fifty  years  been  replaced  in  those 
forests  where  dogs  are  still  used  by  the  golden 
retriever,  or  more  often  by  the  collie,  the  two 
dogs  last  mentioned  having  been  found  more 
suitable  for  pursuing  wounded  deer.  The  deer- 
hound  was  so  high-couraged  that  he  would  not 
bay  the  stag,  but  would  pull  him  down  or  be 
killed  by  him.  A  further  objection  was  that  he 
would  hunt  by  sight  rather  than  by  scent,  it 
not  being  in  his  nature  to  put  his  nose  to  the 
ground,  and  it  was  therefore  practically  impossible 
to  train  him  as  a  tracker. 

I  heard  no  more  of  the  wounded  stag  until 
the  following  season,  when  I  once  more  found 


HOMING  INSTINCTS  OF  WOUNDED  DEER  129 

myself  in  the  same  forest.  I  asked  the  stalker 
whether  he  had  any  news  of  the  stag.  lie  said  : 
"  That  is  a  question.  The  stalkers  in  the  other 
forest  never  found  any  stag,  but  a  very  curious 
thing  has  happened.  About  20  yards  inside  the 
fence,  at  the  nearest  point  in  that  part  of  the 
forest  which  is  fenced  in  from  where  you  shot 
the  stag,  that  would  be  about  a  distance  of  three 
miles,  the  skeleton  of  a  stag  was  found  last  April. 
The  head  stalker  on  that  part  of  the  forest  tells 
me  he  is  quite  sure  it  was  not  a  stag  that  was  shot 
inside  the  fence.  I  have  got  the  head  here,  and 
will  show  it  to  you."  I  examined  it  carefully. 
It  was  a  good  regular  head  of  ten  points,  with 
remarkably  long  forks  at  the  top,  and  I  thought 
it  looked  a  better  head  than  that  of  the  stag  I 
had  shot,  and  said  so  to  the  stalker.  He  replied  : 
"  It  is  the  same  shape,  and  I  well  remember  noticing 
the  space  between  the  forks  at  the  top.  Not 
only  that,  but  in  April  when  we  found  him  there 
were  no  stags  on  that  part  of  the  ground  and  had 
not  been  for  some  time ;  also  by  the  bleached 
condition  of  the  horns,  I  am  quite  sure  he  must 
have  died  in  October  or  early  in  November,  and 
he  could  not  have  died  a  natural  death  after  the 
winter  was  over.     And  as  to  his  getting  through 

17 


130  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

the  fence,  at  that  season  of  the  year  stags  have  a 
wonderful  way  of  getting  through  a  fence  if  they 
want  to  do  so.  If  he  was  mortally  wounded  after 
he  got  outside  he  would  be  sure  to  go  back  to  the 
place  where  he  was  born  and  knew  he  was  safe,  and 
depend  upon  it  he  would  find  his  way  back  through 
the  fence  where  he  got  out.  One  can  never  be 
sure,  but  on  the  whole  I  think  he  is  the  stag  you 
shot.  You  see  the  only  way  he  could  have  gone 
that  day  without  our  seeing  him  was  out  of  sight 
round  that  hill  in  the  direction  of  the  fenced-in 
part  of  the  forest.  I  am  sure  he  was  mortally 
wounded,  he  had  seen  us  ;  and  after  seeing  us, 
being  wounded,  he  would  go  straight  on,  as  you 
know,  so  long  as  his  strength  would  carry  him  and 
he  would  go  straight  to  his  old  home.  They're 
wonderful  in  that  way,  deer  are  :  I  shall  never 
forget  how  I  was  taught  that  years  ago  when  I 
was  out  with  the  young  chief  at  X." 

I  asked  the  stalker  to  tell  me  the  story,  which 

1  give  in  his  own  words  :  "  About  twelve  years 
ago,  when  I  was  a  gillie  at  X,  I  was  out  one  day 
with  the  chief's  son  late  on  in  the  season,  about 
the  end  of  the  first  week  in   October.     About 

2  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  we  saw  a  Royal  stag 
and  some  hinds  above  the  black  shed,  between 


HOMING  INSTINCTS  OF  WOUNDED  DEER  131 

the  lodge  and  the  second  stalker's  house,  and 
after  a  successful  stalk,  he  fired  but  wounded  the 
stag,  just  grazing  him  in  the  lower  part  of  the 
body.  The  stag  did  not  give  the  rifle  another 
chance,  but  turned  his  head  fair  south,  towards  the 

top  of  the  C .     We  watched  him  crossing  the 

top,  then  we  made  for  where  we  saw  him  crossing, 
and  we  saw  him  about  300  yards  away  as  he  was 
going  down  the  opposite  side,  and  he  was  still 
going  south,  then  getting  out  of  view,  into  a  hollow. 
The  stalker  did  not  lose  his  chance,  but  made  a 
sprint  to  get  up  to  him,  which  he  managed  to  do, 
but  the  wily  fellow  was  always  keeping  his  back 
to  his  enemy,  and  making  fast  for  some  private 
corner,  where  he  hoped  he  would  be  safe.  The 
trigger  was  not  pulled  for  him.  Being  in  plain 
ground  there,  and  the  Royal  stag  fast  on  the  move, 
we  could  do  nothing  but  wait  and  watch  where 
he  would  cross  the  next  ridge,  which  was  fully 
a  mile  away.  Once  the  stalker  saw  him  cross, 
we  made  at  once  for  the  spot  he  went  out  of  our 
view,  getting  there  as  soon  as  our  legs  could 
carry  us,  and  after  spying  that  part  of  the  ground 
very  carefully,  we  failed  to  pick  him  up.  That 
was  in  the  centre  of  the  Glashan,  a  piece  of 
ground  about  Ij  miles  square,  very  level,   with 


132  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

shallow  peat  hags,  and  guarded  on  three  sides 
with  slightly  rising  ridges.  The  distance  between 
where  the  stag  was  wounded  and  where  we  lost 
him  was  about  seven  miles.  By  this  time 
the  light  was  failing,  so  we  had  to  make  tracks 
for  home.  One  evening,  a  few  days  later,  when 
it  w^as  beginning  to  get  dark,  the  head  stalker 
was  out  about  the  larder,  and  noticing  a  stag  with 
some  hinds  above  the  lodge,  and  putting  his 
glass  on  him,  at  once  knew  the  stag  he  had  the 
run  after  a  few  days  before.  I  was  just  after 
getting  home  from  the  hill,  and  he  ordered  me 
to  go  and  shoot  him.  The  rifle  I  never  fired 
before,  and  the  sight  although  marked  for  100 
yards  I  afterwards  found  to  be  a  70  yards 
sight.  I  got  to  about  100  yards  from  the  stag, 
but  having  the  evening  light,  and  being  among 
juniper  bushes,  I  had  to  shoot  off  my  hand, 
and  missed  him.  There  was  no  other  chance 
that  evening,  as  the  light  was  getting  bad.  Two 
or  three  days  after,  about  10  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, I  was  going  along  to  the  E Bothy,  about 

a  mile  from  the  lodge,  when  I  saw  about  twenty 
hinds  and  a  stag  amongst  them,  and  after  putting 
the  glass  on  him,  I  knew  it  was  the  same  stag.  I 
at  once  went  back  to  tell  the  head  stalker,  but 


HOMING  INSTINCTS  OF  WOUNDED  DEER  133 

finding  him  not  at  home,  I  took  the  rifle.  I  got 
to  about  120  yards  of  the  stag,  but  shooting 
too  low,  I  grazed  his  foreleg  below  the  heart ; 
he  did  not  give  me  another  chance  then,  but 
left  the  hinds  and  turned  to  the  south  across 
the  top.  When  I  got  to  the  top  I  noticed  him 
about  half  a  mile  from  me  ;  keeping  him  in  view 
he  went  for  about  two  miles  south,  then  turning 
south-west  I  kept  him  in  view  for  three  miles, 
then  lost  sight  of  him,  but  I  could  understand  by 
the  movements  of  some  hinds  the  Hne  he  was 
taking.  I  made  for  the  place  where  I  lost  sight  of 
him,  but  having  got  there  I  could  see  nothing.  I 
followed  up  the  burn  that  rises  at  Cairn-an-S— — , 
and  after  getting  half-way  up  the  burn,  I  came  out 
to  the  open  to  spy.  I  was  spying  for  some  time, 
and  was  putting  my  glass  in  its  case  when  I 
noticed  a  black  object  about  half  a  mile  away, 
about  the  size  of  a  blackcock.  I  used  my  glass, 
and  who  was  this  but  the  Royal  lying  in  the 
centre  of  the  Glashan,  on  quite  level  ground. 
He  was  lying  down  licking  the  scratch  where  I 
wounded  him  earlier  in  the  day.  With  great 
difficulty  and  after  a  long  crawl  I  got  to  about 
70  yards  of  him,  and  shot  him  through  the 
neck.     That  was  a  lucky  range,  as  the  rifle  was 


134  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

sighted  for  70  yards.  I  was  in  an  awful  mess 
through  crawling  in  burns  and  gutters  after  him, 
but  I  was  very  keen  on  getting  him,  and  as 
an  old  chap  once  said  to  me,  *  When  you  have  a 
difficult  thing  to  do  you  must  not  be  minding 
your  clothes.'  Well,  I  was  pleased  I  got  him  as 
I  was  sure  he  could  not  live  very  long.  I  con- 
sidered what  to  do  ;  my  first  idea  was  to  put  him 
in  some  safe  place,  and  come  for  him  next  day,  so 
I  took  him  to  a  burnside  into  a  hollow  and  hid 
him,  but  before  doing  so  I  put  a  small  chack  with 
my  knife  above  his  brow  antler,  to  know  him  if 
ever  I  saw  him  again,  as  I  did  not  know  who 
might  be  looking  at  me.  I  was  in  doubt  whether 
I  would  take  his  head  off  or  leave  it  there  all 
night.  I  at  once  changed  my  mind,  as  it  was  so 
good  a  head  I  did  not  like  leaving  him  out  there 
all  night.  I  cut  his  head  off,  giving  him  a 
long  neck  for  being  stuffed.  That  finished,  I 
shouldered  the  Royal  head,  took  him  back  five 

miles  to   the   E Bothy,  left  him  there  that 

night,  and  took  it  two  miles  further  to  the  lodge 
the  next  day,  and  to-day  it  hangs  in  the  chief's 
mansion.  The  young  chief  was  very  glad  to  get 
it.  The  head  was  a  very  good  Royal,  thick 
horns,  points  equal  and  well-shaped.     The  distance 


o    ^ 
r.      - 


HOMING  INSTINCTS  OF  WOUNDED  DEER  135 

between  the  place  where  I  shot  him  through  the 
neck  and  the  place  we  lost  him  the  day  the  young 
chief  wounded  him  is  hardly  half  a  mile  apart. 
That  day  the  stag  was  first  wounded,  he  went 
whatever  a  distance  of  six  or  seven  miles  to  that 
quiet  spot  in  the  centre  of  the  Glashan.  The 
day  I  shot  him  through  the  neck  I  followed  him 
for  about  eight  miles  from  the  place  where  I 
grazed  his  foreleg  below  the  heart.  He  never 
saw  me,  he  never  stopped,  always  making  for 
that  private  spot,  the  place  in  the  centre  of  the 
Glashan.  So  this  stag  went  two  times  to  that 
same  place,  as  he  hoped  he  would  be  safe  there, 
and  possibly  that  stag  might  have  been  lying  in 
the  same  bed  both  nights."  This  shows  the 
distance  a  stag  will  go  for  safety,  and  that  he  goes 
back  to  his  old  home,  the  spot  where  he  thinks 
he  is  safe.  And  so  I  believe  that  my  friend  the 
stalker  must  have  been  right  in  thinking  that  the 
stag  he  had  found  in  April  was  the  stag  I  had  shot 
in  the  early  days  of  the  preceding  October. 


XI 


THE  METHOD  BY  WHICH  EAGLES  AND 
HAWKS  SECURE  THEIR  PREY 

As  is  well  known,  the  eagle  lives  largely  on 
carrion  such  as  dead  deer  and  carcases  of  sheep, 
differing  in  this  respect  from  the  peregrine 
falcon,  which  lives  exclusively  on  what  it  kills. 
Generally  speaking,  the  eagle  secures  its  prey  by 
pouncing  on  it  on  the  ground  and  carrying  it 
away  in  its  talons.  He  swoops  down  at  a  great 
pace  in  a  slanting  direction,  and  in  this  way  not 
only  captures  hares  and  rabbits,  but  also  grouse 
and  ptarmigan  on  the  ground  and  young  ducks 

136 


HOW  EAGLES  SECURE  THEIR  PREY       137 

on  the  loch.  It  is  very  interesting  to  watch  the 
great  bird  searching  slowly  along  the  side  of  a  hill, 
about  50,  100,  or  150  yards  above  the  ground  ; 
then  he  suddenly  pounces,  and  in  a  moment  is 
up  again  and  away  with  his  prey  in  his  talons. 
So  regularly  does  the  eagle  adopt  this  method  of 
capturing  his  prey  on  the  ground,  that  I  have 
met  stalkers  who  have  told  me  that  they  do  not 
believe  that  an  eagle  can  overtake  any  swift- 
winged  bird  such  as  grouse  or  black  game.  This 
is  certainly  wrong,  for  the  eagle  does  sometimes, 
though  comparatively  rarely,  adopt  the  other 
method  of  securing  his  prey — the  method  which 
I  have  already  described  (see  p.  64,  supra) — that 
of  pursuing  and  catching  his  prey  in  the  air,  and 
in  this  way  without  doubt  captures  blackcock, 
grouse,  and  ptarmigan.  I  have  already  stated 
(see  pp.  57-70,  supra)  that  in  my  opinion  the 
eagle  in  his  downward  flight  is  faster  than  the 
peregrine.  Even  in  his  horizontal  flight,  once  he 
gets  going  he  can  fly  very  fast  if  he  chooses,  but 
of  course  is  not  nearly  so  agile  and  cannot  turn 
and  twist  with  the  rapidity  of  the  peregrine,  and 
the  result  is  that  when  he  overtakes  his  quarry  he 
frequently  misses  him. 

Nearly  a  hundred  years  ago  one  of  the  most 

18 


138  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

acute  observers  amongst  ornithologists  wrote  as 
follows  :  "In  another  part  of  the  Western 
Highlands  of  Scotland  we  had  an  opportunity 
of  witnessing  the  powers  of  flight  of  this  bird 
in  pursuit  of  its  quarry.  An  old  blackcock  was 
sprung  and  was  instantly  pursued  by  the  eagle 
(who  must  have  been  on  a  neighbouring  rock 
unperceived)  across  the  glen,  the  breadth  of 
which  was  at  least  2  miles. 

"  The  eagle  made  several  unsuccessful  pounces, 
but  as  there  was  no  cover  and  the  bird  large,  it 
probably  fell  a  victim  in  the  end."^ 

Lastly,  as  I  have  already  said  in  the  pages 
just  mentioned  where  I  have  fully  discussed  the 
matter,  the  eagle  on  rare  occasions  swoops  down 
at  a  terrific  pace  on  his  prey  in  the  air,  striking 
it  to  the  ground  but  not  clutching  it  or,  to  use 
the  falconer's  phrase,  binding  on  it. 

The  eagle  has  a  great  partiality  for  liares,  cats, 
young  fox  cubs,  and  young  lambs.  I  remember 
James  Macintosh,  head  stalker  at  Loch  Rosque, 
telling  me  that  on  two  occasions  whilst  waiting  at 
a  fox  den  he  had  shot  an  eagle.  He  added  that, 
whilst  the  old  foxes  are  away,  the  cubs,  when  they 

^  Ornithological    Dictionary   of  Birds,    by   Col.    G.    Montagu :    2nd 
edition  by  James  Rennie,  London,  1831. 


now  EAGLES  SECURE  THEIR  PREY       139 

get  hungry,  sometimes  make  such  a  noise  that  they 
can  be  heard  at  a  considerable  distance,  and  that 
he  beHeved  this  attracts  the  eagles,  particularly 
if  their  eyrie  in  which  they  are  rearing  their  young 
happens  to  be  in  the  vicinity.  He  went  on  to 
say  that  he  thought  this  accounted  for  his  some- 
times finding  fox  dens  containing  only  one  or 
two  cubs  instead  of  the  usual  number  of  three  to 
seven.  There  is  no  doubt  that  eagles  sometimes 
attack  deer  calves,  fixing  their  talons  in  their 
victim's  neck  or  back  and  striking  the  calf  with 
their  wings.  They  frequently  hunt  in  pairs,  and 
have  been  seen  to  drive  the  calf  over  a  precipice. 

On  rare  occasions  eagles  have  been  known  to 
attack  a  full-grown  stag.  In  certain  parts  of  the 
Highlands  they  have  lately  increased  in  numbers, 
and  perhaps  as  a  consequence,  their  ordinary  food 
not  being  so  plentiful,  have  become  bolder. 

Only  last  year  I  was  stalking  in  a  forest  where 
a  few  days  earlier  a  stalker  had  witnessed  a  most 
unusual  incident.  The  following  is  his  account 
of  what  he  saw  : 

"  A  gentleman  and  1  were  out  stalking  on  the 
25th  of  September,  and  while  the  gentleman  was 
having  lunch,  I  went  off  about  200  yards  to  have 
a  spy.     I  got  a  stag  lying  at  the  foot  of  a  rock. 


140  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

While  I  had  the  glass  on  him,  an  eagle  suddenly 
swooped  down  and  attacked  him.  The  stag  went 
headlong  into  a  bog,  but  managed  to  get  up.  I 
then  ran  back  for  the  gentleman  thinking  we 
would  have  a  shot,  but  by  the  time  we  got  back 
the  stag  and  eagle  were  over  the  sky-line  and  the 
eagle  still  following  while  going  over  the  sky-line, 
but  after  that  we  don't  know  what  happened,  as 
both  eagle  and  stag  went  out  of  sight." 

Donald  Matheson,  who  has  had  a  lifelong 
experience  in  the  forest  and  has  only  recently 
retired  after  having  been  for  many  years  stalker 
at  Glen  Shieldaig  to  Mr.  C.  J.  Murray  of  Loch 
Carron,  told  me  that  on  one  occasion,  but  on  one 
occasion  only,  he  saw  an  eagle  attack  an  adult 
stag. 

"  It  would  be,  as  far  as  I  remember,"  he  said, 
"  between  the  6th  and  10th  of  October  in  the 
year  1888  when  I  was  spying  one  morning  at  the 
forest  stables.  I  picked  up  a  stag  on  the  top  of 
Glen  Shieldaig,  quietly  feeding  on  the  Glaschnoc 
side,  and  while  having  my  glass  still  on  the  stag 
an  eagle  swooped  down  on  his  head.  The  stag 
fell  on  his  hind-quarters,  but  was  soon  on  his 
feet  again  and  ran  for  his  life  while  the  eagle  was 
fixed  on  him.     The  stag  made  for  a  thick  clump 


now  EAGLES  SECURE  THEIR  PREY       141 

of  birch-trees,  and  immediately  the  stag  got  under 
cover  the  eagle  could  not  keep  its  hold,  owing  to 
the  thick  branches  of  the  trees,  and  left  the  stag. 
The  eagle  kept  hovering  for  some  time  above  the 
wood  where  the  stag  was  concealed,  but  at  last 
flew  away." 

Whilst  stalking  in  the  neighbouring  forest  of 
Applecross  two  years  ago,  Colonel  the  Hon. 
Claude  Willoughby  had  a  most  interesting  experi- 
ence, a  description  of  which  he  has  kindly  given 
me  permission  to  reproduce  here : 

"  On  30th  September,  1921,"  he  writes,  "  I 
was  stalking  with  Alick  Mackenzie  on  Applecross. 
We  had  come  through  Corrie  Chaorachan  into 
Corrie  Na  Na  and  spied  a  stag  with  hinds  on 
the  west  face  above  the  loch.  The  wind  was 
west,  and  after  a  difficult  and  exceedingly  good 
stalk  across  the  Corrie  and  above  these  deer, 
avoiding  hinds,  also  another  stag  with  hinds, 
we  arrived  at  a  point  within  150  yards  of  the 
stag  we  were  after  and  found  him  lying  down. 
Owing  to  the  light  and  the  distance,  I  deter- 
mined to  wait  for  him  to  rise  before  shooting. 
After  waiting  half  an  hour,  hinds  which  we 
had  seen  beyond  the  place  where  he  was  lying 
came  galloping  past  him.     He  rose  and  I  shot 


142  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

him  ;  he  fell  dead.  We  at  once  saw  that  the 
reason  of  these  hinds  galloping  was  that  an  eagle 
was  after  a  calf  which  had  separated  from  the  herd. 
We  saw  the  eagle  land  on  the  calf's  back  twice, 
but  the  calf  escaped. 

"  The  eagle  then  attacked  a  hind  in  the  herd. 
A  kestrel  hawk  now  joined  in,  and  mobbed 
the  eagle.  This  attack  lasted  only  a  short  time. 
The  eagle  then  circled  round  my  dead  stag, 
the  kestrel  soon  after  disappearing.  The  eagle 
settled  on  a  rock  about  five  yards  from  the  dead 
stag,  and  remained  there  until  we  showed  our- 
selves. All  this  took  place  within  200  yards 
of  us. 

"  On  the  Tuesday  following  Lord  Derwent  was 
also  stalking  on  Applecross,  near  Corrie  Attadale. 
He  and  the  head  stalker  Finlayson  saw  an  eagle 
attack  a  calf,  which  it  knocked  down  twice,  but 
the  calf  escaped." 

There  has  been  much  difference  of  opinion, 
and  from  time  to  time  considerable  controversy 
as  to  how  the  peregrine  kills  its  prey.  Some 
stalkers  and  ornithologists  believe  that  it  is  done 
with  the  edge  of  the  wing,  a  smaller  number  with 
the  beak,  whilst  others  think  it  is  done  with  the 
talons.      The  last-mentioned  view  is  that  which 


HOW  PEREGRINES  STRIKE  THEIR  PREY    143 

is,  I  believe,  universally  held  by  falconers,  who 
after  all  have  many  more  opportunities  of  seeing 
how  it  is  done  than  any  other  class  of  men.  I 
have  frequently  discussed  this  question  with 
naturalists  and  stalkers,  keepers  and  others 
interested  in  this  subject,  and  have  listened  to 
all  they  could  tell  me.  I  have  also  had  the  great 
advantage  of  hearing  at  first  hand  from  falconers 
of  experience  their  views  and  their  reasons  for 
them.  Further,  I  have  myself  been  so  fortunate 
as  to  see  the  wild  peregrine  pursue  and  stoop  at 
its  quarry.  I  have  seen  it  strike  and  kill  it  and 
on  occasion  miss  it.  In  addition  to  this,  I  have 
read  everything  I  could  find  on  this  subject,  both 
in  the  older  and  more  modern  books  of  authority. 
I  am  satisfied  myself  that  the  view  held  by  the 
falconers  is  the  true  one,  and  I  cannot  state  their 
conclusions  better  than,  or  indeed  so  well  as, 
by  quoting  from  three  letters  that  I  have  received. 
The  writers  of  these  three  letters  have  kindly 
given  me  permission  to  quote  their  views. 

Major  C.  E.  Radclyffe,  who  has  had  almost 
unrivalled  experience  as  a  falconer,  writes  as 
follows  : 

"  All  forms  of  falcons  and  short  -  winged 
hawks,    such    as    sparrow-hawks    and    goshawks. 


144  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

always  strike  their  quarry  with  their  feet,  and 
never  with  anything  else.  The  killers  are  those 
which  '  bind  to  '  their  quarry  in  the  air,  that  is, 
pick  up  a  bird  in  their  feet,  and  never  let  go 
of  it  until  they  come  to  the  ground.  A  really 
experienced  old  trained  falcon  does  this  nine 
times  out  of  ten. 

"  Sometimes,  however,  when  stooping  from  a 
great  height,  the  impetus  of  the  falcon  is  so 
terrific  that  she  seems  to  know  if  she  '  binds  to  ' 
her  quarry,  the  impact  will  be  so  great  as  nearly 
to  tear  her  legs  from  her  body.  Thus,  when 
stooping  at  a  heavy  bird  like  a  grouse,  or  a  pheasant, 
at  great  speed,  the  falcon  slightly  throws  upwards 
on  her  impact  with  the  quarry,  and  delivers  a 
raking  blow  with  her  single  long  back  talon. 
By  this  means  (her  back  talon  being  sharp  as  a 
razor)  I  have  seen  a  grouse  ripped  open  from  its 
tail  to  its  neck.  I  have  seen  its  wing  broken  and 
I  have  seen  its  head  cut  oif. 

"  All  falcons  are  very  careful  not  to  risk 
touching  anything  with  their  wings,  hence  a 
falcon  will  never  really  stoop  at  a  bird  on  the 
ground  with  an  idea  of  catching  it,  but  they  will 
keep  stooping  just  over  a  bird  they  can  see  on  the 


now  PEREGRINES  STRIKE  THEIR  PREY    145 

ground  in  the  hope  of  flushing  it,  and  then  they 
will  catch  it  in  a  minute. 

"  I  have  seen  falcons  and  hawks  break  their 
wings  by  striking  the  smallest  twig  on  the 
branch  of  a  tree  when  misjudging  a  stoop  at  a 
bird. 

"  Therefore,  you  can  imagine  how  easily  a 
hawk  would  smash  its  wing  if  it  attempted  this, 
to  hit  a  heavy  bird  like  a  grouse  or  pheasant 
going  at  terrific  speed. 

"  If  you  threw  a  lawn-tennis  ball  against  a 
falcon's  wing  coming  at  you  at  the  rate  of  over 
a  hundred  miles  per  hour,  and  hit  its  wing-bone, 
that  hawk  would  never  fly  again. 

"  I  have  many  times  in  my  life,  when  casting 
lightly  with  a  very  small  trout  rod,  just  touched 
the  wing  of  a  swift  or  swallow  with  the  tip  of  the 
rod.  I  never  broke  a  rod  thus,  but  nearly  always 
broke  the  bird's  wing.  I  think,  when  you  come 
to  consider  these  things,  you  will  see  that  a  hawk 
dare  not  strike  the  smallest  bird  with  its  wing. 

"  It  uses  its  beak  only  to  finish  off"  a  bird  on  the 
ground,  and  this  she  does  by  breaking  the  bird's 
neck  with  its  beak. 

"  I  have  lived  amongst  wild  and  trained  hawks 

19 


146  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

all  my  life,  and  I  can  assure  you  the  above  facts 
are  true." 

The  reference  in  the  above  letter  to  the 
peregrine  killing  a  grouse  by  striking  it  with  its 
talon  reminds  me  of  the  following  interesting 
note  in  Birds  of  Great  Britain  (5  volumes), 
published  by  the  author,  John  Gould,  F.R.S., 
in  1873. 

"  Evidence  forwarded  to  Mr.  James  Burdett, 
keeper  to  the  Earl  of  Craven.  .  .  .  On  dissecting 
a  coot  I  saw  taken  and  dropped  by  a  peregrine 
falcon,  I  found  the  neck  dislocated  at  the  third 
joint  from  the  head  and  an  appearance  as  if  the 
sharp  point  of  the  hind  claw  had  penetrated  the 
brain  at  the  occiput." 

Captain  C.  F.  A.  Portal,  D.S.O.,  writes  as 
follows  : 

"I  have  seen  many  dozens  of  game-birds 
struck  down  by  trained  peregrines  within  50 
yards  of  me,  and  I  can  definitely  state  that  the 
hawk  invariably  aims  a  blow  xvith  the  talons  at 
his  quarry.  .  .  . 

"  So  true  is  a  peregrine's  aim  that  he  generally 
gets  home  with  both  his  hind  talons  somewhere 
near  the  middle  of  the  quarry's  back,  but  often 
he  hits  a  wing  and  breaks  it,  and  occasionally  he 


HOW  HAWKS  SECURE  THEIR  PREY        147 

breaks  the  neck  in  the  same  way,  I  have  examined 
hundreds  of  birds  (partridges)  killed  by  hawks, 
and  I  have  always  found  the  mark  of  two  hind 
talons  or  one  of  them.  The  decapitation  is 
generally  performed  within  a  few  seconds  of  the 
hawk's  alighting  on  the  dazed  or  crippled  victim. 
It  is  performed  by  one  powerful  wi-ench  of  the 
beak.  No  peregrine  will  eat  or  even  pluck  a 
living  bird.  ...  In  my  experience  it  is  a  rare 
thing  for  a  peregrine  to  strike  a  bird  dead  in  the 
air.  It  does  occasionally  happen  that  the  blow 
falls  on  the  head  or  neck,  but  what  generally 
happens  is  that  the  bird  is  thrown  violently  to  the 
ground  with  a  wing  broken  or  the  back  dislocated. 
The  concussion  with  the  ground  dazes  it,  and 
the  hawk  quickly  drops  down  upon  it  and  kills 
it  with  its  beak. 

"  The  merlin  often  kills  comparatively  large 
birds  {e.g.  the  thrush,  fieldfare,  golden  plover, 
etc.)  by  strangling  them,  as  its  beak  is  not  strong 
enough  to  break  their  necks.  It  kills  larks,  etc., 
in  the  same  way  as  the  peregrine  kills  his  quarry, 
that  is,  by  sudden  dislocation  of  the  neck. 

"  The  sparrow-hawk  kills  its  prey  by  gripping 
it  with  its  feet  and  di'iving  the  claws  into  its 
body  ;    this  is  a  slow  death  sometimes,  and  the 


148  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

sparrow-hawk  has  none  of  the  true  falcon's  scruples 
about  plucking  (and  even,  I  fear,  beginning  to 
devour)  a  living  bird. 

"I  do  not  like  the  sparrow-hawk  for  this 
reason,  though,  of  course,  the  falconer  can  gener- 
ally prevent  cruelty  by  killing  the  quarry  himself." 

Captain  G.  S.  Blaine,  another  falconer  of  great 
experience,  also  has  no  doubt  on  the  matter.  In 
a  letter  to  me  on  this  question  he  writes  : 

"  A  peregrine  strikes  with  its  talons  only.  Of 
this  I  am  certain,  having  seen  the  blow  given  to 
countless  quarries  at  close  quarters.  How  the 
other  idea  (that  of  striking  with  the  wing)  could 
possibly  have  originated  I  do  not  know.  It  is 
quite  obviousty  impracticable.  ...  If  a  pere- 
grine administered  the  terrific  blow  which  she 
delivers  when  striking  a  quarry  with  her  wing, 
breast,  or  beak,  she  would  be  knocked  out  at 
once,  and  permanently  injured.  A  peregrine 
can  easily,  after  recovering  from  her  stoop,  turn 
over  again  and  catch  the  quarry  in  the  air.  I 
have  seen  this  often  done,  when  the  bird  had  been 
struck  high  up  in  the  air.  If  near  the  ground, 
it  would  fall  before  the  hawk  could  get  hold  of  it. 
Many  also  often  catch  and  hold  a  quarry  without 
knocking  it  down.    This  is  the  way  most  successful 


DFATH   01"  THK   MALLARD 
Reproduced  by  kind  permission  of  M 


essr>.  Oliver  .S:  Boyd,  Edinburgh,  from  Came-Birds  and  Wild  Fowl, 
by  A.  E.  Knox. 


HOW  PEREGRINES  STRIKE  THEIR  PREY    149 

game  hawks  catch  grouse  or  partridges.  When 
struck,  the  blow  is  deUvered  on  any  part  of  the 
body — it  may  be  the  head  and  it  may  be  the  back 
or  the  wing  which  may  be  broken." 

In  Reminiscences  of  a  Falconer  (John  Nimmo, 
London,  1901)  Major  C.  H.  Fisher  writes  : 

"  Tlie  blow  is  given  by  the  falcon's  strong  and 
sharp  hind  talon  of  each  foot — usually  sharp  as  a 
needle  and  driven  at  great  speed  by  a  bird  weigh- 
ing over  2  lb." 

As  illustrating  the  falcon's  stoop  Major  Fisher 
describes  how  he  saw  a  wild  falcon  strike  a  grey- 
hen twice.     He  says  (p.  97)  : 

"  As  illustrating  the  force  of  a  falcon's  stoop, 
I  may  mention  an  incident  which  occurred  to  me 
on  the  banks  of  the  river  Orrin  when  fishing. 
From  some  bracken  I  put  up  three  greyhens. 
Down  came  a  wild  falcon  from  the  sky  at  the 
middle  bird.  I  saw  and  heard  the  blow.  The 
greyhen  staggered  on,  leaving  the  usual  tribute  of 
feathers  behind  her.  Up  rose  the  falcon  in  the 
grand  and  stately  style  so  few  trained  hawks  can 
ever  adopt  or  regain  (so  much  do  they  lose  by 
captivity)  ;  over  and  down  she  came,  and  down 
fell  the  quarry,  as  dead  as  though  shot  by  a  bullet. 
.   .   .  Down  too  went  my  long  rod  and  off  went  I. 


150  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

.  .  .  On  this  occasion  I  took  possession  ...  of 
the  wild  hawk's  prey.  On  examining  the  effect 
of  her  two  blows,  I  found  that  three  ribs  on  one 
side  were  clean  cut  through  and  separated  from 
the  backbone  as  by  a  chop  with  a  heavy  knife 
and  strong  hand,  and  one  talon  had  entered  and 
split  the  base  of  the  skull,  from  which  the  brains 
were  protruding." 

One  of  the  foremost  advocates  of  the  contention 
that  the  fatal  blow  is  inflicted  by  a  stroke  of  the 
wing  is  Mr.  Tom  Speedy,  who  deals  with  this 
subject  in  his  Natural  History  of  Sport  in  Scot- 
land ivith  Rod  and  Gun  (pp.  102,  103).  He 
bases  his  argument  first  on  the  supposition  that 
when  the  fatal  blow  is  struck  on  the  back  of  the 
quarry,  the  skin  is  only  bruised  and  not  torn.  He 
writes  : 

"  A  keeper  friend  of  mine  near  Kingussie 
witnessed  a  grouse  struck  down  by  a  peregrine, 
and  as  there  was  not  a  mark  on  it  he  sent  it  to  me. 
Carefully  plucking  it,  I  noted  that  with  the 
exception  of  a  bruise  along  the  spine  there  was 
no  other  mark  on  it ;  yet  the  blow  had  been 
sufficient  to  cause  instant  death.  This  comports 
with  my  own  observations,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
understand  how  this   blow   could   be   struck   by 


HOW  PEREGRINES  STRIKE  THEIR  PREY    151 

these  terrible  talons  without  the  skin  being  torn. 
As  the  heads  of  grouse  are  frequently  cut  off 
when  struck  by  a  peregrine,  it  is  the  opinion  of 
foresters  who  have  watched  them  with  their 
glasses  that  it  is  done  by  the  wing.  Falconers 
deny  this  and  maintain  that  it  is  done  by  the 
hind  talon.  How,  then,  it  may  be  asked,  can  this 
be  done  when  there  is  not  a  scratch  on  the  victim, 
but  only  a  bruise  indicating  where  the  blow  was 
struck  ?  " 

The  answer  to  this  argument  is  that  there  is 
absolutely  reliable  evidence  to  the  contrary — 
in  other  words,  that  sometimes  the  skin  is  torn. 

Major  Radclyffe  in  his  letter  referred  to  above 
writes  :  "I  have  seen  a  grouse  ripped  open  from 
its  tail  to  its  neck." 

Captain  Portal  says  :  "I  have  examined  hun- 
dreds of  game-birds  killed  by  hawks,  and  have 
always  found  the  marks  of  the  two  hind  talons 
or  one  of  them." 

Sometimes,  no  doubt,  as  in  the  instance  referred 
to  by  Mr.  Speedy,  there  is  a  bruise  along  the 
spine  and  the  skin  is  not  torn,  but  this  is  no  doubt 
to  be  explained,  as  is  pointed  out  by  a  writer  cited 
below,  by  the  way  in  which  a  falcon  shuts  its  feet 
when    stooping,    the   hind    talon    on    each    foot 


152  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

closing  over  the  fore  talons,  thus  forming  a  kind 
of  keel — and  the  bone  on  the  back  of  the  grouse 
is  strong  enough  to  prevent  more  than  a  severe 
bruise. 

Mr.  Speedy  continues  : 

"It  is  argued  that  it  is  impossible  the  bird 
could  be  killed  by  a  blow  from  a  hawk's  wing,  as 
the  wing  would  certainly  be  injured.  I  have  seen 
a  retriever  stunned  by  a  blow  from  the  wing  of 
a  swan,  and  but  for  my  being  in  close  proximity 
in  a  boat  it  would  certainly  have  been  drowned. 
Those  who  have  put  their  hand  into  the  nest  of 
a  wood-pigeon  are  familiar  with  the  blow  even  a 
half-fledged  bird  can  give  with  its  wing.  I  have 
been  struck  with  the  fight  a  wounded  wild  goose 
can  put  up,  and  the  blows  it  can  inflict  on  a 
retriever  with  its  powerful  wings." 

But,  with  all  respect,  surely  the  blow  of  a 
large  powerful  bird  like  a  swan  or  a  goose  delivered 
in  this  way  is  a  very  different  thing  to  the  blow 
which  is  delivered  by  a  peregrine  when  stooping 
at  its  quarry  at  the  terrific  speed  with  which  it 
then  flies,  and,  in  my  opinion,  the  view  taken  by 
experienced  falconers,  such  as  those  quoted  above, 
that  the  wing  would  most  certainly  be  broken  or 
badly  injured,  is  the  correct  one. 


HOW  PEREGRINES  STRIKE  THEIR  PREY    153 

Finally,  Mr.  Speedy  says  : 

"  When  a  falcon  strikes  a  bird  in  the  air  there 
is  a  loud  '  clap  '  whieh  I  have  heard  several 
hundj-ed  yards  away.  This  would  not  be  the 
case  if  struck  by  the  talons." 

I  venture  to  think,  however,  that  the  argu- 
ment based  on  the  sound  caused  by  the  impact 
carries  Mr.  Speedy's  contention  no  further. 
Would  not  this  loud  "  clap  "  naturally  be  expected 
if  the  peregrine  struck  its  quarry  in  the  manner 
described  ? 

In  conclusion,  then,  what  is  the  correct  view  of 
the  matter  ?  In  the  words  of  a  recent  writer :  ^ 
"  The  truth  .  .  .  seems  to  be  that  the  falcon 
shuts  its  feet  when  stooping,  the  hind  talon  on 
each  foot  closing  over  the  fore  talons,  thus 
forming  a  kind  of  keel.  When  the  falcon  strikes 
a  grouse,  the  latter  may  be  partially  or  wholly 
decapitated,  or  it  may  be  severely  bruised  on  the 
back.  The  neck  of  a  grouse  is  soft,  and  the 
'  keel  '  of  a  peregrine's  hind  talon  is  sufficiently 
sharp  to  cut  it,  whereas  on  the  back  of  a  grouse 
the  bone  is  strong  enough  to  prevent  more  than 
a    severe    bruise.     The    shock    of   impact    must, 

^  Rough  Shooting,  by  Richard  Clapham,  ch.  vii.  pp.  125-126.  Heath 
Cranton,  Ltd.,  London,  1922. 

20 


154  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

however,  be  tremendous,  for  a  bird  so  struck 
hurtles  to  the  ground  at  once.  When  the  pere- 
grine strikes,  one  hears  a  loud  '  clap  '  audible  at 
a  considerable  distance,  and  it  is  this  noise  that 
has  given  rise  to  the  theory  that  the  falcon  strikes 
with  its  wing.  If  the  peregrine  used  the  latter, 
however,  in  all  probability  the  wing  would  be 
seriously  damaged  or  broken,  because  the  pace 
at  which  a  falcon  stoops  must  be  seen  to  be 
believed." 

There  is  another  interesting  fact  in  regard  to 
this  fine  bird  which  is  not  generally  known. 
There  seems  little  doubt  that  he  deserves  the 
description  which  has  more  than  once  been 
applied  to  him — that  of  a  wanton  murderer. 
Thus  Charles  St.  John  in  his  classic  work.  Wild 
Sports  and  Natural  History  of  the  Highlands, 
says  (chap,  x.)  :  "  The  peregrine  seems  often  to 
strike  down  birds  for  his  amusement,  and  I  have 
seen  one  knock  down  and  kill  two  rooks,  who  were 
unlucky  enough  to  cross  his  flight,  without  taking 
the  trouble  to  look  at  them  after  they  fell." 


K^^e 


XII 

INSTANCES  OF  WOUNDED  STAGS 
ATTACKING  STALKERS 


It  must  often  have  occurred  to  every  one  who  has 
had  experience  in  stalking  what  a  very  different 
sport  stalking  would  be  if  stags  realised  their 
power  and  had  no  fear  of  man.  It  is,  of  course, 
well  known  to  every  one  who  is  interested  in 
the  habits  of  deer  that  a  tame  stag  in  the  rutting 
season  is  one  of  the  most  dangerous  animals,  and 
some  years  ago  a  tragedy  occurred  in  Ross-shire, 
when  a  stalker  was  attacked  and  killed  by  a  stag 
which  he  had  himself  brought  down  from  the 
forest  as  a  calf  and  which  knew  him  well.  I 
have   often   asked   experienced   stalkers   whether 

155 


156  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

they  have  ever  known  an  unwounded  stag  attack 
a  man,  but  with  one  exception  I  have  never  heard 
of  any  such  case. 

The  one  instance  to  the  contrary  is  that  given 
by  Mr.  Frank  Wallace  in  his  delightful  book, 
Stalks  Abroad.  In  describing  his  stalking  in 
New  Zealand,  Mr.  Wallace  gives  what  he  describes 
as  the  only  really  well  -  authenticated  instance 
which  he  can  vouch  for  of  a  wild  stag  attacking 
a  man,  and  adds  that  most  likely  the  darkness  and 
time  of  year  had  something  to  do  with  the  stag's 
boldness.  He  thus  describes  the  incident  :  "It 
was  dark  by  the  time  B.  and  his  guide  reached 
the  river-bed,  which  at  the  point  they  struck  it 
is  very  wide.  They  had  scrambled  along  over  the 
boulders  and  rocks  with  which  their  course  was 
strewn  for  some  distance,  when  they  saw  a  dark 
object  lying  on  the  stones  in  front  of  them. 
This  presently  resolved  itself  into  a  sleeping  stag, 
who,  hearing  them  approach,  jumped  up  and  dis- 
appeared. They  had  not  seen  the  last  of  him, 
however,  for  a  little  later  they  encountered  him 
again,  apparently  very  annoyed  at  having  been 
aroused  from  his  beauty  sleep  and  determined 
to  wreak  vengeance  on  some  one.  Seeing  them, 
he    seemed    to    think    they    would    be    suitable 


DANGER  OF  WOUNDED  STAGS  157 

objects  on  which  to  make  a  start,  and  advanced 
with  lowered  head.  B.  threw  a  stone  and  hit 
it  in  the  flank  ;  but  this  had  no  effect,  and  the 
animal  advanced  a  few  paces  nearer  and  stood 
swaying  its  head  from  side  to  side  a  few  inches 
off  the  ground.  As  some  one  had  to  go  and  the 
stag  seemed  disposed  to  give  no  quarter,  B.  fired 
a  shot,  but  without  effect.  The  stag  still  advanced, 
until  a  second  shot  took  him  in  the  chest  and 
finished  him  off.  I  saw  him  the  next  day  where 
he  had  fallen.  He  had  a  small  head  of  six  points, 
and  was  obviously  a  young  beast." 

There  are  no  doubt  rare  instances  of  a  wounded 
stag  attempting  to  attack  a  man.^  I  myself  have 
never  known  such  an  instance,  and,  although  I  have 
often  asked  old  stalkers  whether  they  have  ever 
known  of  anything  of  the  kind,  I  have  only  once 
met  with  any  one  who  has  had  such  a  personal 
experience.  The  head  stalker  of  a  well-known 
forest  recently  told  me  that  on  two  occasions  he 
had  known  of  wounded  stags  attacking  a  man. 
The  story  of  his  experiences  interested  me  so 
much  that  I  asked  him  to  write  it  down  in  his 

^  In  One  Hundred  Years  in  the  Highlands,  p.  132  (Edward  Arnold, 
London,  1921),  Mr.  Osgood  Mackenzie  quotes  an  extract  from  a  diary  of 
his  uncle.  Dr.  John  Mackenzie  of  Eileanach,  in  which  an  incident  of  this 
kind  is  described  as  having  occurred  in  Kinlochewe  Forest. 


158  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

own  words.     This   he   did,   and  the  account  he 
sent  me  was  as  follows  : 

"  I  enclose  here  a  long  detail  about  the  only 
time  I  happened  to  see  wounded  stags  attacking. 
You  will  find  it  a  long  story,  but  it  so  impressed 
itself  on  my  mind  I  could  not  help  giving  the 
movements  of  each  day  in  full.  Twice  in  my 
experience  of  twenty  -  four  years  I  have  seen 
a  w^ounded  stag  attacking  a  man.  The  first 
happened  on  September  25,  1902,  when  I  was 
stalking  with  Mr.  A.  In  our  start  in  the  morning 
to  the  first  spying  place  we  usually  on  the  way 
moved  some  hinds,  but  did  not  trouble  about  this, 
as  seldom  stags  were  seen  so  low  down  till  October 
and  stormy  weather  came.  But  this  morning, 
when  near  the  spying  place,  what  was  my  surprise 
to  see  to  our  right  lying  on  a  flat,  mossy  bank  a 
fine  big  stag  with  ten  points.  He  did  not  see 
us,  and  we  were  preparing  to  stalk  him  when 
some  of  the  hinds  we  moved  passed  a  little  beyond 
and  carried  him  away,  so  we  sat  down  and  kept 
our  glasses  on  them  for  a  long  distance  till  they 
settled  and  began  to  feed,  but  the  stag  kept  on 
walking  slowly  and  climbing  till  he  went  out  of 
sight  over  the  ridge  beyond.  We  had  to  make  a 
long  detour  to  get  past  the  hinds,  and  when  we 


DANGER  OF  WOUNDED  STAGS  159 

got  to  the  top  and  spied  we  found  our  stag 
some  two  miles  away  lying  with  a  few  small  stags 
close  to  the  march  in  a  position  fairly  easy  to  stalk 
if  he  waited  for  about  half  an  hour.  We  at  once 
dipped  down  into  the  eorrie  at  his  right  and  moved 
along  till  opposite  him.  We  then  climbed  till 
within  80  yards  ;  he  was  still  lying,  so  Mr.  A. 
came  to  the  conclusion  to  take  him  before  getting 
up  in  case  he  would  lose  him  on  the  march. 
Mr.  A.  fired,  and  hit  high  near  the  spine.  The 
stag  got  up,  but  fell  without  making  a  step.  I 
ran  up  to  bleed  him,  and,  crossing  below,  I 
noticed  his  head  up  again,  and  hurried  up,  when 
he  made  a  straight  bolt  at  me.  With  a  quick 
jump  to  one  side,  I  got  clear  of  his  head  by  a  few 
inches.  He  toppled  down  the  face  and  fell  in  a 
hollow.  I  think  it  was  then  he  broke  his  back, 
as  he  could  only  raise  his  forepart.  I  called  on 
Mr.  A.  to  come  up  and  finish  him,  as  he  was  a 
dangerous  beast.  When  he  came  in  sight  to 
one  side  and  raised  the  rifle  the  stag  half  turned 
towards  him  and  gave  a  loud,  defiant  roar,  which 
was  cut  short  by  a  bullet  tlirough  the  neck.  He 
weighed  18  st.  2  lb. ;  the  head  had  a  wide  span  and 
long,  but  the  horn  was  rather  thin  and  smooth, 
which  showed  he  was  past  his  prime.     Whether 


160  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

he  roared  because  he  could  not  manage  to  get 
at  the  man  or  with  fright  when  he  saw  the  rifle 
it  is  hard  to  guess,  but  I  remember  thinking  how 
like  his  roar  was  to  the  roar  of  two  stags  at  each 
other  on  opposite  sides  of  a  corrie. 

"  The  second  time  was  in  1907,  about  October 
1st.  This  season  we  got  some  heavy  stags  on  my 
beat.  The  heaviest  was  20  st.  5  lb.,  and  Mr.  B., 
with  whom  I  was  then  stalking,  was  keen  to  make 
a  record  average  weight.  One  day  we  were 
spying  near  the  far  end  of  the  beat,  and  saw  a 
stag  travelling  on  to  our  ground.  At  first  we 
could  not  make  out  what  he  was,  until  he  joined 
a  bunch  of  hinds  and  showed  us  his  broadside, 
when  at  once  we  saw  he  was  a  fine  big  beast,  and, 
although  neither  of  us  said  so,  I  believe  we  both 
thought  at  the  time  it  was  bigger  than  our  20- 
stoner.  The  day  was  getting  late,  and  it  was 
hard  to  stalk  him  where  he  was,  and  so  near  the 
march,  if  a  failure,  so  we  left  him  in  peace,  hoping 
for  favourable  wind  and  weather  next  day.  Next 
morning  we  were  early  on  the  move  and  over  the 
tops  at  best  pace  till  we  came  to  the  spying  point. 
We  saw  the  same  stag  and  hinds  on  the  same 
face,  but  lower  down,  and,  if  anything,  harder  to 
get  at.     We  went  round  the  top  of  the  corrie  to 


DANGER  OF  WOUNDED  STAGS  161 

get  straight  above  them.  The  place  was  a  green 
steep  face  without  a  particle  of  cover,  but  fine 
and  smooth  to  slide  down  at  a  steady,  flat  crawl. 
When  within  300  yards  I  raised  my  head  up  to  spy 
out  the  best  way.  What  did  I  see  right  in  our 
path  and  under  a  small  bank,  and  not  over  five 
yards  away,  but  a  small  knobber !  To  pass  to 
either  side  without  him  seeing  us  was  impossible. 
I  turned  to  Mr.  B.  and  asked  him  what  he  pro- 
posed we  should  do,  but  got  no  answer,  and  I 
then  said  I  would  pitch  a  small  stone  to  make 
him  move  somewhere.  I  saw  Mr.  B.  nodded 
assent.  Then,  after  having  a  look  to  study  the 
little  stag's  position,  I  lowered  down  and  pitched 
a  stone  on  a  guess,  when  I  heard  a  sharp  click  like 
as  if  I  hit  him  on  the  horn.  lie  got  sharply  up 
and  ran  down  at  a  terrific  pace  towards  the  near 
hinds,  and  they  ran  for  a  short  distance  down, 
when  they  suddenly  all  stopped  and  began  to 
look  sharply  up  towards  us.  I  may  admit  I  got 
palpitation,  and  from  what  I  heard  at  my  back  I 
was  getting  no  praise  for  my  aim.  Then  we 
noticed  the  big  stag,  which  was  lying  below  and 
on  the  far  side,  rise,  and,  giving  a  loud  roar,  he 
made  straight  for  the  knobber,  and  drove  him  out 
and  up   towards   us.     But  the  little  fellow  got 

21 


162  AIVIID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

round  him,  and  ran  again  into  the  hinds  with  the 
big  stag  in  hot  pursuit.  The  big  stag  drove  him 
down  and  across  the  river,  which  was  the  march. 
He  stood  on  the  bank  and  gave  a  parting  grunt, 
and  then  began  to  drive  his  hinds  up  towards  us. 
We  at  once  began  to  crawl  slowly  down  so  as  to 
get  the  cover  of  a  small  hump  that  was  between 
us,  which  we  managed  to  do  in  good  time  and 
get  the  rifle  ready,  for  shortly  we  saw  the  first  of 
the  hinds  appearing  about  fifteen  yards  to  our 
left.  They  at  once  noticed  us,  but  as  we  were 
then  turned  into  two  stones  they  only  shied  off 
a  little  and  moved  slowly  uphill,  except  one, 
which  began  to  circle  round  to  get  into  our  wind. 
I  kept  my  eye  on  her  to  see  when  she  would  give 
the  alarm,  when  we  were  to  move  over  the  hump 
and  chance  the  stag  being  within  shot.  But 
before  anything  happened  I  felt  a  touch  from 
Mr.  B.,  and,  looking  round,  saw  the  top  of  the 
big  stag's  horns  appearing  quite  close.  When  he 
noticed  us  he  stood  with  a  ferocious  look  towards 
us.  Mr.  B.  quickly  took  aim  and  fired.  I  saw 
the  blood  gushing  from  the  stag's  throat,  low,  and 
near  his  foreleg.  He  staggered  and  fell.  Mr.  B. 
getting  up  suddenly  threw  his  rifle  down  and  ran 
over  to  bleed  him.     I  went  to  pick  up  the  rifle. 


DANGER  OF  WOUNDED  STAGS  163 

and  then,  turning  to  have  a  look  at  our  trophy, 
lo  !  there  was  the  stag  up  and  Mr.  B.  holding 
on  firmly  to  both  horns,  his  arms  well  out  and 
rigged  and  kept  well  back  close  to  his  shoulders, 
the  stag  giving  nasty  digs  and  always  trying  to 
get  into  him.  I  saw  at  once  that  things  were  not 
looking  well,  so  I  loaded  the  rifle  so  as  to  disable 
the  stag  by  shooting  him  through  the  haunches. 
When  I  stepped  near  for  fear  of  accident  they 
began  of  a  sudden  a  merry  go  round  and  round, 
so  fast  that  I  dare  not  shoot.  They  went  round 
and  round  six  or  seven  times.  I  saw  something 
would  have  to  be  done  quickly,  so,  putting  the 
rifle  away,  I  stepped  close  and  plunged  in  on  the 
opposite  side,  taking  hold  of  his  horns,  so  with  the 
weight  of  30  st.  between  us  we  pulled  the  noble 
brute  down,  when  Mr.  B.  managed  to  put  the 
knife  into  his  tlu-oat. 

"  Now  this  stag  was  losing  a  lot  of  blood  all 
the  time,  and  must  have  been  losing  his  strength, 
which  I  consider  saved  us,  and  in  my  opinion  the 
stag  was  keener  to  get  into  the  man  than  to  get 
away,  for  I  noticed  he  always  circled  towards  him. 
Mr.  B.,  as  a  rule,  always  bled  his  own  stags,  and 
this  time,  after  taking  hold  of  the  horn  to  bleed 
him,  the  stag  got  up  suddenly,  and  Mr.  B.  stuck 


164  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

to  him,  and  then  Mr.  B.  found  he  could  not 
safely  let  him  go,  as  he  saw  at  once  the  stag  would 
turn  on  him  if  he  got  the  least  chance.  He  said 
to  me  after  it  was  all  over,  '  That  was  a  very  near 
thing,'  and  so  it  certainly  was." 

My  friend  Vincent  Balfour- Browne  has  re- 
minded me  that  the  latter  instance  of  a  wounded 
stag  attacking  a  man  is  similar  in  some  respects 
to  Charles  St.  John's  thrilling  story  of  the  Muckle 
Hart  of  Ben  More  in  his  Wild  Sports  and  Natural 
History  of  the  Highlands,  in  which  case,  to  use 
Balfour- Browne's  words,  the  stag  was  certainly 
keener  to  get  into  the  man  than  to  get  away. 


"mr^ 


■■^^. 


.*>•.■ 


€"--^::'"  .„.,-.^^**^ 


XIII 

TRAPPED 

I  NEVER  hear  any  one  mention  Spring  -  Tide 
without  thinking  of  an  experience  which  I  had 
whilst  duck-shooting  on  the  north-west  coast  of 
Scotland. 

On  the  afternoon  of  a  certain  autumn  day  I 
went  out  to  try  to  shoot  wild  duck,  the  plan  being 
that  I  should  be  landed  with  my  gun  and  spaniel 
on  a  rocky  islet  in  a  certain  sea  loch,  and  that  I 
should  wait,  taking  what  cover  I  could  amongst 
the  rocks,  whilst  the  boat  from  which  I  was  landed 
should  be  rowed  up  to  the  head  of  the  loch  in 
order  to  flush  the  wild  duck  of  which  there  were 
always  numbers  there  at  that  time  of  the  year. 
It  was  known  that  on  being  disturbed  the  duck 
would  fly  down  the  loch  towards  the  open  sea, 

165 


166  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

and  some  of  them  would  probably  cross  the 
rocks  on  which  I  was  waiting. 

It  was  a  fairly  quiet  though  misty  day  when  we 
set  out,  but  there  were  clouds  gathering  in  the 
east,  and  it  looked  as  if  there  would  be  a  storm 
before  long.  In  due  course  I  was  landed  on  the 
little  island,  which  was  quite  small  and  consisted 
of  low-lying  rocks.  I  said  to  my  old  fisherman, 
who  with  another  man  was  rowing  the  boat, 
"  Are  you  sure  that  these  rocks  are  never  covered 
by  the  sea?  "  and  he  replied,  "  Ach,  no,  it  is  arl 
richt." 

Away  went  the  boat,  and  in  it  besides  the  two 
men  rowing  were  an  old  friend  of  mine,  who  was 
a  cautious  Scot,  and  two  ladies. 

Not  long  after  it  was  out  of  sight  the  wind 
rose  and  rain  began  to  fall.  After  a  time  some 
duck  passed  out  of  shot,  then  a  single  bird  which 
I  killed,  then  after  another  interval  a  big  lot  well 
out  of  shot,  and  then  at  intervals  two  single  birds, 
one  of  which  I  brought  down.  The  spaniel  had 
enough  to  do  to  retrieve  the  birds  with  the  strong 
tide  and  high  wind.  Just  after  this  a  storm  of 
wind  and  rain  swept  down  the  loch,  and  the  sea 
became  very  wild.  I  was  still  thinking  about  the 
duck,    but    felt    no    anxiety    after   what    the    old 


TRAPPED  167 

fisherman  liad  said.  After  a  time,  however,  I 
began  to  feel  some  apprehension,  as  the  tide  was 
rising  very  rapidly  and  there  was  only  a  compara- 
tively small  part  of  the  island  uncovered.  I 
thought  I  had  better  make  up  my  mind  as  to 
which  was  the  highest  point  on  the  island,  and 
particularly  where  I  should  have  the  best  chance 
of  retaining  my  footing  if  the  sea  rose  much 
higher.  I  selected  what  seemed  to  be  the  best 
place  for  this  purpose,  with  some  short  rocks  in 
front  of  me,  and  took  up  my  stand  peering  into 
the  mist  from  time  to  time  for  a  sight  of  the  boat 
and  hoping  every  moment  to  see  it.  There  was 
now  so  small  a  part  of  the  island  uncovered  that  I 
was  getting  very  wet  from  the  waves,  which  were 
breaking  with  some  force,  and  my  dog  was  very 
excited,  barking  and  whining  and  making  a  great 
fuss. 

Things  were  becoming  very  serious,  and  I 
could  see  that  unless  the  tide  turned  within  a 
few  minutes  the  rocks  would  be  covered.  The 
water  rose  so  high  and  so  rapidly  that  I  was  now 
standing  in  water  and  the  ducks  I  had  shot  were 
washed  away.  Still  no  sign  of  the  boat,  and  the 
tide  still  rising. 

The  waves  by  this  time  were  breaking  over  the 


168  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

rocks,  and  for  a  few  moments  I  was  thoroughly- 
alarmed,  as  I  realised  that  if  the  tide  rose  a  little 
higher  I  shoidd  probably  be  washed  off,  and 
though  I  could  swim  I  had  no  reasonable  hope  of 
being  able  in  that  sea  to  swim  the  considerable 
distance  which  separated  me  from  the  mainland. 
However,  the  feeling  of  fear  was  very  short,  and 
was  followed  by  a  grim  determination  to  hold  on 
for  all  I  was  worth,  and,  strange  as  it  seemed  to 
me  afterwards,  a  pleasurable  excitement  in  what 
I  realised  Avas  going  to  be  a  desperate  effort  to 
keep  my  footing.  There  were  very  few  points  of 
the  rock  left  uncovered  now,  and  the  tide  was 
still  rising,  when  suddenly  out  of  the  mist  I  saw 
the  boat  coming,  rising  and  falling  in  the  angry 
sea. 

To  cut  a  long  story  short,  it  was  a  most 
dangerous  and  difficult  job  to  take  me  off  the 
rocks  without  upsetting  the  boat,  but  it  was 
managed  all  right  by  the  two  men,  the  older  of 
whom  was  a  very  experienced  seaman.  In  less 
than  three  minutes  after  they  got  me  off,  the 
point  of  rock  that  I  had  been  on  was  covered  and 
there  was  nothing  of  the  island  to  be  seen. 

My  friend,  to  whom  I  shall  be  ever  grateful, 
declares  that  he  saved  my  life,  and  tliis  I  think 


TRAPPED  169 

was  the  fact,  for  wlicn  the  wind  got  up  he  insisted 
on  the  men  going  back  to  the  island  at  once, 
feeHng  very  nervous  on  my  account,  and  they  had 
a  tremendous  pull  to  get  back  in  time  as  the  sea 
was  very  rough  and  the  tide  was  running  strongly 
against  them. 

The  cause  of  the  rocks  being  covered  by  the 
sea — a  very  rare  occurrence — was  an  unusually 
high  spring  tide  coupled  with  a  strong  gale  from 
the  opposite  direction,  which  made  the  waves 
much  higher  than  they  would  otherwise  have 
been  in  a  loch  which  has  the  reputation  of  being 
one  of  the  most  dangerous  lochs  on  the  west 
coast  for  squalls. 


22 


^.-r^ 


XIV 


THE  LAST  STALK  OF  THE  SEASON 


It  was  the  last  day  of  the  stalking  season  in  the 
forest  of  Fealar,  where  it  had  been  my  good 
fortune  to  spend  the  first  ten  days  of  October. 
I  had  been  out  stalking  for  eight  days,  during 
two  of  which  I  did  not  get  a  shot,  but,  with  the 
exception  of  the  preceding  day,  which  had  been 
a  black  Friday  for  me,  I  had  been  very  lucky, 
having  shot  eight  stags,  and  three  of  these  I  had 
stalked  without  the  aid  of  a  stalker,  which  had 
added  greatly  to  my  pleasure.  But  it  was  a 
melancholy  fact  that  the  last  day  had  arrived,  and 
what  had  it  in  store  for  us  ?  On  the  preceding 
day  I  had  had  a  series  of  misfortunes,  and  when 
I  got  up  and  looked  out  of  my  bedroom  window 
the   prospect   was   not   a   cheery   one.     A   thick 

170 


THE  LAST  STALK  OF  THE  SEASON         171 

mist  enveloped  everything  all  round  the  lodge, 
which  is  one  of  the  highest,  if  not  the  highest,  of 
all  the  shooting  lodges  in  the  Highlands,  1764  ft. 
above  the  level  of  the  sea.  On  coming  down  to 
breakfast  my  host  said  to  me,  "  Well,  I  don't 
think  it  is  any  use  going  out  to-day.  What  do 
you  say  ?  "  But  I  knew  quite  well  that  my  host, 
one  of  the  keenest  and  best  of  sportsmen,  was 
only  poking  fun  at  me  on  this  the  last  day  of 
the  season.  By  ten  o'clock  the  mist  had  slightly 
lifted.  There  was  a  steady  drizzle ;  the  high 
tops  were  still  covered  ;  the  wind  was  east  to 
south-east — the  wrong  wind  for  this  forest — and 
the  prospect  was  certainly  not  inviting.  How- 
ever, we  determined  to  make  a  start,  and  I 
was  sent  out  on  the  beat  of  the  head  stalker, 
Macdougall.  We  had  not  gone  more  than  a  mile 
from  the  lodge  when  we  saw  a  shootable  stag  with 
some  hinds,  and  after  a  stalk  up  a  burn  and  a 
considerable  crawl  over  a  peaty  bog,  we  got  to  a 
point  within  shot  of  them.  Macdougall  was  just 
getting  the  rifle  out  of  its  cover  when  some- 
thing disturbed  the  deer,  and  away  they  went. 
Macdougall  said  he  thought  I  must  have  shown 
myself,  though  I  was  not  conscious  of  having 
done  so.     At  any  rate,  I  had  succeeded  in  getting 


172  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

wet  through  in  my  efforts  to  keep  flat  and  out 
of  sight. 

The  weather  continued  thoroughly  unsatis- 
factory. It  was  impossible  to  spy,  and  for  the 
following  hour  we  saw  nothing.  About  the  end 
of  that  time  it  cleared  up  a  little,  and  we  spied 
about  a  mile  off  a  large  herd  of  deer,  between 
200  and  300,  and  amongst  them  what  appeared 
to  be  some  very  fine  stags.  We  had  to  make  a 
long  detour,  and  then,  by  walking  and  crawling 
along  the  side  of  a  burn,  we  succeeded  in  getting 
within  what  we  thought  must  be  a  very  short 
distance  of  some  of  the  stags,  judging  from  the 
sound  of  their  roaring.  We  crawled  up  the  bank 
of  the  burn,  and  found  ourselves  within  about  200 
yards  of  one  end  of  the  herd,  where  there  was  a 
fine  10-pointer  continually  on  the  move,  rounding 
up  the  hinds.  Macdougall  said  he  thought  we 
could  get  in  much  nearer  by  going  back  into  the 
burn  and  crawling  further  up  it.  This  we  did, 
and  then,  after  crawling  a  little  way  up  the  side 
of  the  hill,  we  got  to  within  100  yards  of  the 
10-pointer.  Almost  immediately  after  I  had  got 
the  rifle  into  my  hands  the  stag,  which  had  been 
perpetually  on  the  move,  stood  for  a  moment 
broadside   on,   giving   me   a   splendid   chance.     I 


THE  LAST  STALK  OF  THE  SEASON         173 

fired,  and  the  stag  bounded  forward  a  few  paces, 
and  then  fell  dead.  He  had  a  fine,  regular  head 
of  ten  points,  certainly  the  best  head  I  had 
obtained  this  season,  although  I  had  been  fortunate 
in  shooting  a  good  many  stags.  It  was  by  this 
time  just  twelve  o'clock.  Macdougall  said  we 
had  better  have  lunch  in  order  to  allow  the  deer 
to  settle  down,  and  added  that  he  did  not  think 
they  would  go  very  far.  He  said  he  was  quite 
sure  that  there  were  at  least  other  two  very  fine 
stags  amongst  the  deer  that  had  gone  forward. 

The  stag  was  soon  gralloched,  and  the  gillie 
was  sent  back  for  the  pony.  We  did  not  take 
long  over  lunch,  and  then  set  off  in  the  direction 
in  which  the  deer  had  gone,  being  guided  by 
the  perpetual  roaring  of  the  stags.  After  going 
some  little  distance  we  located  the  deer  on  the 
face  of  a  hill  rather  less  than  two  miles  from  us. 
Though  there  was  still  a  drizzle  and  the  light  was 
bad,  the  wind  had  risen,  and  the  mist  had  to  some 
extent  cleared  from  the  lower  ground. 

After  walking  and  crawling  along  the  bed  of 
a  burn  for  about  half  a  mile  we  got  into  a  position 
from  which  we  were  able  to  spy  the  deer,  as  it 
had  ceased  raining  and  the  light  was  better.  We 
made  out  that  there  were  two  lots  of  hinds  on 


174  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

the  face  of  the  hill  with  stags  in  both  lots,  and 
between  them  five  stags.  The  largest  of  these 
stags  had  a  very  fine  head,  and,  as  often  happens 
in  the  case  of  a  big  stag,  had  in  attendance  on  him 
a  smaller  or  sentinel  stag.  The  stalker  said  he 
thought  the  big  stag  was  a  Royal,  but  was  not 
quite  sure.  This  stag  and  the  others  which  were 
with  him  had  evidently  been  driven  away  from 
the  hinds  by  a  heavy  10-pointer,  who  was  the 
master  stag,  and  who  was  making  a  gi'eat  disturb- 
ance, chasing  the  smaller  stags  away,  and  round- 
ing up  the  larger  lot  of  hinds. 

After  a  very  laborious  crawl,  sometimes  on 
all-fours,  sometimes  flat,  sometimes  in  the  burn, 
sometimes  out  of  it,  for  about  three-quarters  of 
a  mile  further,  we  reached  a  point  in  the  burn 
about  600  or  700  yards  below  the  five  stags  which 
I  have  before  referred  to.  In  the  meantime  the 
wind  had  risen,  and  the  weather  was  now  very 
rough  and  stormy.  Macdougall  whispered  to  me 
that  we  should  have  to  crawl  up  the  hill  in  full 
sight  of  the  deer,  and  this  we  proceeded  to  do 
for  some  500  yards,  watching  the  deer  with  the 
greatest  care,  and  whenever  one  of  their  heads 
went  up  instantly  becoming  as  motionless  as 
statues,    and    so    gradually    getting    up    the    hill 


THE  LAST  STALK  OF  THE  SEASON         175 

until  at  last  we  got  behind  a  little  tussock.  The 
little  stag  was  in  front  of  the  four  stags,  close  to 
him  was  the  big  stag,  and  some  little  distance 
behind  the  latter  were  the  other  three  stags. 
Macdougall  pulled  the  rifle  out  of  its  cover  and 
beckoned  to  me  to  crawl  up.  He  then  whispered, 
"  You'll  have  to  take  him  now,  sir  ;  it's  the  only- 
chance  you'll  get.  We  can't  possibly  get  a  yard 
nearer."  "  Take  him  now,"  I  said;  "  why,  how 
far  off  do  you  say  he  is  ?  "  "  Oh,  maybe  330 
yards,"  said  Macdougall.  "  He's  too  far,"  I  said. 
"  I  shall  probably  wound  him,  or  more  likely 
miss  him."  Macdougall's  reply  was,  "  I  think 
you  can  manage  him,  sir,  and,  anyhow,  it's  your 
only  chance  ;  we  cannot  get  nearer."  "  Why  not 
try  to  get  to  that  next  knobby,"  I  asked,  "  about 
100  yards  further  on,  behind  which  the  big  stag 
is  just  going  ?  "  Macdougall  said  that  if  we 
tried  to  do  that  the  other  three  stags  behind  the 
big  'stag  would  be  certain  to  see  us  and  would 
bolt  and  put  the  whole  lot  oif.  *'Well,"  I  re- 
plied, "  if  they  do,  we  shan't  be  worse  off  than 
if  I  fire  now  and  miss.  Come  on,  let's  do  the 
bold  thing,  it  sometimes  pays."  Macdougall 
shook  his  head  and  said,  "  It's  no  wise,  I'm 
thinking."    "  Come  on,"  I  said.     "  Well,  sir,"  said 


176  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

Macdoiigall,  "  if  you  will  have  it,  we'll  try,  but  I 
don't  think  it  will  be  any  good  ;  we  shall  have  to 
crawl  as  hard  and  fast  as  ever  we  can  up  the  hill, 
quite  flat  the  whole  way."  Away  w^e  went  as 
hard  as  we  could,  and  it  took  me  all  my  time  to 
keep  up  behind  Macdougall,  who  propelled  him- 
self along  at  a  prodigious  rate.  Arrived  behind 
the  knobby,  we  very  carefully  raised  our  heads, 
and  found  that  Macdougall's  prophecy  had  for- 
tunately proved  only  partly  correct.  The  three 
stags  behind  the  big  stag  and  his  fag,  the  little 
stag,  had  seen  us  and  had  bolted,  but  instead  of 
going  forward,  as  Macdougall  had  expected,  they 
had  turned  tail  and  made  off  in  the  other  direction, 
with  the  result  that  they  had  only  put  off  the 
deer  behind  them  and  none  of  the  deer  in  front 
of  them.  Macdougall  hurriedly  whispered,  pull- 
ing the  rifle  out  of  the  cover  :  "  The  big  stag  is 
still  there,  sir,  but  he  and  the  wee  staggie  are 
getting  varra  suspeecious,  and  you'll  have  to 
take  him  varra  quick.  He'll  be  about  220  yards." 
"  Well,"  I  said,  "  I  must  get  my  breath  ;  I'm 
absolutely  blown,"  the  fact  being  that  at  the 
moment  I  felt  absolutely  done  to  the  world  and 
was  quite  incapable  of  shooting  straight.  The 
big  stag  had  slightly  moved  and  was  now  standing 


THE  LAST  STALK  OF  THE  SEASON         177 

about  three-quarters  end  on,  a  very  difficult  shot. 
I  raised  the  rifle,  sighted  the  stag,  and  pressed 
the  trigger.  There  was  a  sound  of  a  little  click, 
and  that  was  all.  "  A  misfire  !  "  I  muttered 
below  my  breath.  "  Are  you  sure  you  loaded 
the  rifle  after  lunch  ?  "  "  Yes,  sir,  I  am,"  said 
Macdougall.  "  Very  well,  then,"  I  replied,  "I'll 
try  him  with  the  second  barrel,"  and  raised  the 
rifle.  "  Don't  fire,"  said  Macdougall ;  "  we'd 
better  make  sure."  With  some  difficulty,  owing 
to  the  position  I  was  in  and  the  necessity  of  keep- 
ing as  flat  as  possible,  I  opened  the  rifle,  and  lo 
and  behold  it  was  empty  !  I  loaded  it  as  quickly 
as  I  could.  Meantime,  the  stag  had  moved  on  a 
few  yards,  and  was  now  standing  broadside  on. 
I  put  up  the  rifle,  took  a  steady  aim,  and  fired. 
There  was  a  thud  ;  the  stag  gave  a  start  and 
then  moved  slowly  forward.  "You  have  him," 
said  Macdougall.  I  said,  "  I  don't  know  that." 
"  He's  varra  sick,"  said  Macdougall,  "  and  will 
never  get  over  the  hill."  The  stag  had  evidently 
been  shot  in  the  stomach.  He  was  looking  very 
sick,  poor  beast,  and  was  walking  slowly  forward, 
stopping  every  now  and  then.  All  the  other  deer 
had  disappeared  as  if  by  magic  except  the  little 
stag,  who  kept  some  distance  in  front  of  the  big 

23 


178  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

stag,  constantly  looking  round  at  him,  evidently 
loth  to  leave  his  lord  and  master.  I  said,  "I'd 
better  fire  again,"  and  put  up  the  250  yards  sight, 
as  I  estimated  that  the  stag  was  now  nearly  300 
yards  from  us,  and  fired.  "  Over  him,  sir," 
whispered  Macdougall.  "  We  must  get  a  bit 
nearer,"  I  said.  "I'm  afraid  if  we  move  he'll 
see  us  and  begin  to  run,"  Macdougall  replied. 
"  Well,"  I  said,  "  we'd  better  try  and  get  round 
him."  So  we  crawled  right  round  behind  the 
stag,  who  kept  on  moving  slowly  and  then 
stopping,  and  got  to  within  about  220  yards  of 
him.  "  Tak'  your  time,  sir,"  said  Macdougall. 
The  stag  gave  me  a  good  chance,  broadside  on  ; 
and  I  fired,  believing  that  I  Avas  quite  steady. 
"Missed  him,  sir,"  said  Macdougall;  "I  saw 
something  fly  up  behind  him."  "I'm  not  so 
sure,"  said  I,  and  as  I  spoke,  the  stag,  who  when 
I  fired  had  bounded  forward  three  or  four  paces, 
staggered  and  then  fell  and  rolled  over  and  over 
down  the  hill,  shot  through  the  heart,  as  we 
subsequently  found.  Macdougall  seized  my  hand 
and  shook  it  vigorously,  saying,  "  I  hope,  sir, 
he's  a  Royal.  I  believe  he  is."  As  we  were 
getting  up  to  the  stag  I  said,  "  I  see  three  on  one 
top,  but  not  on  the  other."     "  Ach,  yes,"  said 


THE  LAST  STALK  OF  THE  SEASON        179 

Macdougall,  "  he  has  three  on  both  tops.  Yes, 
sir,  he's  a  Royal,  and  we  shall  have  to  fine  you 
a  bottle  of  whisky  according  to  the  custom  of 
this  forest."  "  You  may  be  quite  sure  I  shall  not 
mind  that,"  I  replied.  On  getting  up  to  the 
stag  we  found  that  his  head  was  a  fine  wild  one, 
with  exceptionally  long  horns.  My  first  bullet 
had  passed  through  the  second  compartment  of 
the  stomach,  or,  as  it  is  called  in  Gaelic,  currachd 
an  righ,  close  to  but  a  little  below  the  heart. 

Currachd  an  righ  means  in  English  "  the 
King's  cap,"  though  it  is  sometimes  called 
"  the  King's  night-cap."  Turned  inside  out  it  re- 
sembles in  shape  and  dice  pattern  the  old-fashioned 
night-cap.  It  is  said  that  certain  internal  parts 
of  the  stag  and  other  ingredients  cooked  in  this 
"  bag  "  or  "  currachd  "  was  a  favourite  disli  in 
the  olden  days,  "  fit  for  a  king,"  or  such  as  only 
a  king  could  afford.  That  may  be  why  it  is 
called  "  currachd  an  righ."  The  corresponding 
small  bag  in  the  stomach  of  the  sheep  is  also 
called  "  currachd  an  righ,"  and  in  English  "  the 
King's  hood."  The  same  word  is  used  in  Gaelic 
to  signify  Hood  and  Cap.  Night-cap  translated 
literally  is  "  currachd  oidhche,"  but  in  Gaelic 
the  word    "oidhche"    or    "night"    is    omitted; 


180  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

presumably  because  there  was  only  one  kind 
of  cap. 

"  Poca  buidhe,"  which  means  yellow  bag,  is 
the  Gaelic  name  of  the  first  compartment  or 
large  bag  of  the  stag's  stomach,  and  is  a  name 
used  only  in  the  case  of  the  stag. 

Macdougall  signalled  for  the  pony,  and  then 
gralloched  the  stag.  It  proved  to  be  a  very 
troublesome  job  to  get  the  stag  on  to  the  pony, 
although  the  latter  was  usually  very  quiet  under 
such  circumstances.  JVIacdougall  said  the  reason 
for  his  being  so  restive  was  that  he  could  see  the 
very  long  horns.  After  helping  the  gillie  and 
the  pony  -  man  to  put  the  stag  on  the  pony, 
Macdougall  and  I  tried  to  find  some  other  stag, 
but  in  the  time  still  at  our  disposal  we  saw  nothing 
more  except  a  few  hinds.  Curiously  enough,  the 
weights  of  the  10  -  pointer  and  the  Royal  were 
exactly  the  same  to  an  ounce — namely,  15  st. 
7  oz.  clean,  without  heart  and  liver — and  were  the 
two  best  heads  of  the  season  in  the  forest  of 
Fealar.  Macdougall,  who  was  a  stalker  of  long 
experience,  told  my  host  that  he  had  never  had 
so  strenuous  a  stalk  as  the  stalk  after  the  Royal, 
and  he  said  to  me  on  the  way  home,  "  I  shall 
never  believe  in  thirteen  being  an  unlucky  number 


THE  LAST  STALK  OF  THE  SEASON         181 

again,  sir,  for  I  found  just  after  m-c  had  started 
that  we  had  only  thirteen  cartridges,  and  very 
nearly  went  back  to  leave  one  of  them  at  home." 

On  our  way  down  from  the  hill  there  kept 
ringing  in  my  ears  the  familiar  lines  of  Ruskin  in 
A  Joy  for  Ever,  lines  so  true  in  the  experience  of 
those  of  us  who  are  no  longer  on  the  threshold  of 
life: 

"  It  is  wisely  appointed  for  us  that  few  of  the 
things  we  desire  can  be  had  without  considerable 
intervals  of  time." 

My  host  had  also  shot  two  stags^  though  he 
had  not  met  with  the  wonderful  luck  I  had  had. 
No  one  could  have  been  more  genuinely  pleased 
at  my  good  fortune  than  he  was.  So  ended  for 
me  the  last  day  of  the  stalking  season  of  1913, 
which  was  one  of  the  most  enjoyable  and  lucky 
days  I  have  ever  spent  in  the  Highlands,  and  will 
always  be  to  me  a  red-letter  day. 


^•fe:::H\^# 


XV 

THE  LOCH  PROBLEM 

For  some  twelve  years  I  have  been  trying  experi- 
ments on  lochs  on  my  ground  in  the  North  of 
Scotland,  and  have  written  what  follows  mainly 
because  I  hope  and  believe  that  the  result  of  these 
experiments  may  prove  useful  to  some  of  those 
who  love  trout-fishing  as  I  do,  and  have  the  means 
at  hand,  possibly  without  fully  realising  their 
opportunities,  of  increasing  their  sport  and  that 
of  their  friends.  I  have  spent  much  labour  and  a 
good  deal  of  money  in  attempting  to  improve  the 
fishing  in  various  lochs.  In  some  cases  these 
efforts  have  proved  useless ;  in  others  the  labour 
and  money  expended  in  stocking  the  loclis  and 
increasing  the  food  supply  have  been  altogether 

182 


THE  LOCH  PROBLEM  183 

out  of  proportion  to  the  results  obtained,  but  in 
one  case,  and  one  case  only,  the  results  have  been 
phenomenal,  not  only  in  my  own  experience,  but 
also  in  that  of  my  keeper,  who,  like  myself,  has 
all  his  life  been  keenly  interested  in  and  familiar 
with  trout-fishing  in  the  North.     In  the  case  of 
those  lochs  where  no  good  result  has  been  achieved, 
I  have  at  least  learnt  something  from  my  failure. 
The  loch  upon  which  I  experimented  with  such 
wonderful    results    must    have    been    a    veritable 
larder  of  food  for  the  trout  when  I  put  them  into 
It,  for  there  was  a  large  quantity  of  water  lizards, 
leeches,  frogs,  and  above  all,  fresh-water  shrimps ; 
there  were  also  various  kinds  of  insect  life,  water 
beetles,  notably  the  coch-y-bundhu,  and  a  smaUer 
beetle  with   a   silver   body  which   moves   with  a 
swift   darting   movement.     It   is    impossible   for 
the  trout  to  spawn  effectively,  as  there  is  no  burn 
coming  into  or  going  out  of  the  loch  and  no  water 
continually  moving  over  a  shingly  bottom.     The 
loch  is  not  more  than  six  acres  in  extent,  and  is 
about  500  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.     At 
the  time,  just  thirteen  years  ago,  when  I  began  to 
put  fish  into  it,  there  were  no  fish  in  it,  and  so 
far  as  I  know  there  never  had  been  any,  except 
some  years  ago  when  a  few  trout  were  put  in. 


184  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

but  these  had  no  doubt  been  caught  or  died  long 
before  I  began  my  experiments.  I  am  also  quite 
certain,  for  the  reasons  already  mentioned,  that 
they  had  left  no  descendants.  Every  year,  in 
May  or  June,  about  2^  acres  of  the  loch  are 
covered  with  a  common  kind  of  rush,  the  "  Horse- 
tail," Equisetum  maximum,  and  about  one-quarter 
of  an  acre  with  grass,  which,  I  believe,  is  a  species 
of  Scirpus.  In  the  rushes  and  round  them  are 
patches  of  a  kind  of  surface  weed  which  is  common 
in  Highland  lochs,  and  which,  as  every  fly-fisher 
in  the  Highlands  knows,  is  a  great  danger  to 
him.  This  weed,  the  scientific  name  of  which 
is,  I  am  told,  Potamogeton  polygonifolius,  covers 
an  area  of  some  20  square  yards.  Lastly,  and 
most  important  of  all,  there  is  in  the  loch  a  con- 
siderable quantity  of  the  well-known  Water  Milfoil 
or  shrimp-weed,  Myriophylliivi  verticiUatum,  which 
in  this  water  produced  quantities  of  fresh-water 
shrimp. 

By  August  and  September  the  rushes  have,  of 
course,  largely  increased,  and  extend  to  nearly 
four  acres,  leaving  a  comparatively  small  part  of 
the  loch  which  can  be  fished.  The  depth  of  the 
loch  is  about  3j  feet  all  over  with  the  exception 
of  two  places,  a  very  small  part  of  it,  where  it  is 


O      D 


THE  LOCH  PROBLEM 


185 


about  5  feet.  Its  bottom  is  for  the  most  part 
fairly  hard  ground,  but  on  one  side  there  is  soft 
mud,  and  on  another  side,  for  about  an  acre  and 
a  half,  the  bottom  is  rocky.  I  began  stocking 
the  loch  in  1910,  and  during  the  first  three  years 
put  into  it  small  trout  from  burns  and  other 
lochs  on  my  ground,  but  in  1913  and  1914  put 
into  it  150  and  200  Loch  Leven  yearlings  respect- 
ively. These  yearlings  were  supplied  from  one 
of  the  well-known  hatcheries.  In  1915  I  put  no 
trout  into  the  loch,  but  since,  and  including  1916, 
I  have  put  in  every  year  on  an  average  about 
eighty  small  trout  taken  entirely  from  burns — 
one  of  which  runs  into  the  sea  and  contains  the 
young  of  sea-trout  as  well  as  small  brown  trout. 
The  following  table  shows  the  exact  numbers  of 
fish  put  into  the  loch,  showing  a  total  of  1062. 


1910. 

Aug.,  Sept.,  Oct 

62  (20  fair  size) 

1911. 

July,  Aug.,  Sept. 

61  (16  fair  size) 

1912. 

July,  Sept.,  Oct. 

20 

1913. 

April 

1.50 

1914. 

April 

200 

1916. 

June,  July 

104. 

1917. 

June,  July 

105 

1918. 

June,  July 

96 

1919. 

August 

74 

1920. 

July 

96 

1921. 

July,  August 

44 

1922. 

July 

50 

24 

186  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

1  have  taken  eare  that  the  loch  should  not  be 
fished  too  much,  and  nothing  has  been  used  but 
the  wet  fly.  It  has  only  been  fished  in  May  and 
June  and  in  August  and  September.  In  INIay  and 
June,  which  are,  of  course,  the  best  months  of  the 
year,  it  has  only  been  fished  for  two  or  three  weeks, 
and  in  August  and  September  it  is  very  difficult  to 
persuade  the  trout  to  rise,  and  a  rare  experience 
to  catch  one.  It  has  been  suggested  to  me  that 
I  should  introduce  rainbow  trout  into  the  loch, 
as  they  would  rise  freely  in  August  and  September, 
when  the  large  brown  trout  will  not  do  so. 

In  May  and  June  there  is  a  hatch  out  of  flies 
from  the  weeds  on  the  loch  and  from  the  heather 
on  the  adjoining  moorland.  In  particular  there  is 
a  hatch  out  of  a  large  fly,  of  which  I  have  caught 
specimens.  These  I  have  sent  south  for  examina- 
tion, and  am  told  that  they  are  all  sedges,  the 
largest  being  the  large  red  sedge,  Phryganea 
grandis,  those  next  in  size  being  cinnamon  sedges. 
I  have  had  flies  dressed  in  imitation  of  these,  and 
if  one  is  fortunate  enough  to  be  on  the  loch  when 
the  sedges  are  hatching  out,  there  is  grand  sport 
to  be  had,  and  sport  which  is  greatly  increased 
by  the  presence  of  so  many  troublesome  weeds. 
The  loch  was  not  fished  until  1913,  three  years 


THE  LOCH  PROBLEM  187 

after  trout  were  first  put  into  it.  Every  fish 
caught  under  a  pound,  with  very  few  exceptions, 
has  been  returned  to  tlie  loch,  but  it  is  a  curious 
fact  that  the  fish  rise  very  little  until  they  reach 
about  a  pound  in  weight,  and  so  we  have  not  been 
troubled  much  by  catching  the  smaller  fish  which 
would  have  to  be  returned  to  the  loch. 

The  following  is  the  record  of  fish  caught, 
showing  a  total  of  216,  weighing  482  lb.  1  oz., 
and  averaging  nearly  2 J  lb. 

1913,     6  trout,  weighing  8  lb.  ;    average  1^  lb.  ;    largest  2  lb.  ; 

smallest  ^  lb. 
19H'.     19,    weighing   29   lb.;     average    slightly    over    Ij    lb.; 

largest  2|  lb.  ;  smallest  f  lb. 
1915.     14,  weighing  29  lb.  11   oz. ;    average  just  over  2  lb.; 

largest  3 J  lb.  ;   smallest  1  lb.  1  oz. 
19IG.     20,  weighing  58  lb.  9  oz.  ;   average  nearly  3  lb.  ;   largest 

■i  lb.  7  oz.  ;  smallest  2  lb. 

1917.  18,   weighing   58   lb.    11    oz. ;     average   about   3^   lb.; 

largest  4  lb.  10  oz.  ;  smallest  2  lb. 

191 8.  44,  weighing  98  lb.  5  oz.  ;  average  nearly  2^  lb.  ;   largest 

6  lb.  ;   smallest  |  lb, 

1919.  13,  weighing  28  lb.  4  oz.  ;    average  over  2  lb.  ;    largest 

4^  lb.  ;   smallest  1  lb. 

1920.  20,  weighing  59  lb.  6  oz.  ;    average  very  nearly  3  lb.  ; 

largest  7|  lb.  ;   smallest  1  lb.  2  oz. 

1921.  30,    weighing    48    lb.    13    oz.  ;     average    about    If    lb.  ; 

largest  4|-  lb.  ;   smallest  |  lb. 

1922.  32,  weighing  73  lb.  6  oz.  ;    average  slightly  over  2|  lb.  ; 

largest  5  lb.  2  oz.  ;   smallest  1  lb. 

The  exact  weights  of  the  20,   18,  20,  and  32 


188  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

fish  cauglit  respectively  in  1916,  1917,  1920,  and 
1922  (in  which  years  the  highest  average  was 
reached)  were  as  follows  : 


1916. 

1917. 

1920. 

1922. 

lb.  oz. 

lb.  oz. 

lb. 

oz. 

lb.  oz. 

4     7 

4  10 

7 

8 

5     2 

4     1 

4     I 

4 

10 

5     1 

3  IS 

4     0 

4 

8 

4     S 

3  10 

3  14 

4 

7 

4     4 

3    9 

3  14 

4 

4 

3     4 

3     6 

3   10 

3 

10 

3     4 

3     1 

3    9 

3 

10 

3     4 

3     0 

3     8 

,      3 

0 

3     0 

3     0 

3     8 

o 

9 

2  12 

3     0 

3     5 

2 

8 

2     8 

2   12 

3     1 

12 

2     4 

2   12 

3     i 

10 

2     2 

2    9 

2  13 

10 

2     1 

2     8 

2     8 

10 

2     0 

2     8 

2     8 

8 

2     0 

2     4. 

2     4 

8 

2     0 

2     3 

2     4 

8 

3  of  1    12 

2     2 

2     0 

4 

7  of  1      8 

2     0 

4 

5  of  1      4 

2     0 

2 

1     0 

The  fish  caught  have  been  remarkable  not  only 
for  their  weight  but  also  for  their  extraordinary 
beauty  and  condition.  Those  of  us  who  have 
seen  them  have  seen  many  trout  in  our  time,  but 
have  never  seen  trout  to  compare  with  those 
caught  during  the  first  four  or  five  years  after 


THE  LOCII  PROBLEM  189 

we  began  fishing  the  loch.  Several  of  these, 
which  we  measured,  were  as  much  in  girth  as  in 
length  from  the  gills  to  the  point  of  the  tail 
where  the  flesh  ends.  They  had  small  heads  and 
were  most  beautifully  coloured.  Their  flesh  was 
in  colour  a  deep  red — no  doubt  due  to  the  pig- 
ment in  the  fresh-water  shrimps  which,  as  I  have 
said,  abound  in  the  loch. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that,  although  the 
loch  was  very  little  fished  by  ladies,  they  secured 
the  two  largest  fish,  one  of  Tj  lb.,  which  took  over 
three-quarters  of  an  hour  to  land  and  gave 
splendid  sport,  the  other  G  lb.  The  former  was 
a  most  extraordinary  fish.  It  was  22  inches  in 
length,  16  inches  in  length  from  the  gills  to  the 
point  where  the  flesh  ends  at  the  tail,  and  16  inches 
in  girth.  There  is,  however,  no  doubt  that,  with 
the  exception  of  this  particular  fish,  the  fish  caught 
during  the  last  four  or  five  years,  whilst  in  excellent 
condition  and  comparing  very  favourably  with 
the  ordinary  large  brown  trout  caught  elsewhere, 
have  not  been  so  extraordinary  in  their  girth  as 
in  the  first  few  years  after  the  loch  was  stocked. 

These  experiments  show  the  correctness  of  the 
opinion  expressed  by  one  of  the  most  experienced 
of  writers  on  the  subject  of  trout  culture,   Mr. 


190  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

P.  D.  Malloch,  who  says  in  his  well-known  work 
on  the  Life  History  and  Habits  of  the  Salmon, 
Sea-trout,  Trout  and  other  Fresh-water  Fish  ^ 
(p.  186) :  "When  a  farmer  rents  a  piece  of  land 
for  grazing  he  knows  how  many  sheep  or  cattle  it 
wiU  pasture,  and  that  if  he  puts  on  more  than  the 
proper  number  they  will  not  grow.  He  also 
knows  that  if  he  introduce  too  few  they  will 
become  fat  and  too  lazy  to  eat  up  all  the  pasture, 
and  he  will  thus  lose  part  of  the  money  paid  for 
the  pasture  land.  If  the  proprietor  or  the  tenant 
of  a  loch  would  consider  the  matter  in  the  same 
way  as  the  farmer,  he  would  obtain  full  value  out 
of  his  lochs,  be  saved  a  deal  of  grumbling,  and 
find  life  more  pleasant."  The  same  writer  also 
says  (p.  157)  :  "  Many  naturalists  maintain  that 
there  are  different  species  of  trout  in  the  British 
Islands — Loch  Leven  trout,  Gillaroo  trout,  tidal 
trout,  and  many  others — but  from  a  close  study  of 
all  these  trout  for  the  last  forty  years,  I  have  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  there  is  only  one  species 
of  trout  in  Great  Britain,  and  that  in  the  different 
varieties  the  differences  are  caused  by  the  nature 
of  the  water  in  which  they  are  found  and  by  the 
food   they   eat."     Thus,    as   would   be   expected, 

1  Adam  &  Charles  Black,  London,  1910. 


THE  LOCH  PROBLEM  191 

there  is  no  apparent  difference  between  the  so- 
called  Loch  Leven  trout  which  were  put  into 
the  loch  from  the  hatcheries  and  the  little  trout 
from  my  own  burns.  Numbers  of  these  splendid 
trout  running  up  to  5,  6,  and  7  lb.  must  be  the 
brothers  and  sisters  of  the  little  fingerlings  of  the 
same  age  in  the  burns.  The  best  authorities  are 
apparently  agreed  ^  that  the  average  life  of  trout 
is  about  ten  years  (although  there  are  authenticated 
instances  in  which  they  have  lived  for  a  much 
longer  period),  that  they  reach  their  prime  in  six 
or  seven  years,  that  they  remain  in  their  prime 
for  a  few  years  longer,  and  then  begin  to  lose 
condition  and  weight  as  old  age  creeps  on.  Those 
of  the  trout  put  into  the  loch  in  1910  and  1911 
which  I  have  described  as  of  fair  size  were  about 
three  to  the  lb.,  some  rather  larger  and  could  not 
then  have  had  many  years  to  live.  Those  from 
the  burns  were  probably  of  different  ages,  but 
it  is  highly  likely  that  in  1913  and  1914,  when  the 
yearlings  from  the  hatcheries  were  put  into  the 
loch,  there   were   very  few   of  such   other   trout 

^  See,  for  instance,  the  opinions  of  Mr.  F.  M.  Halford  in  The  Dry- 
Fly  Man's  Handbook,  p.  395  (George  Routledge  &  Sons,  Ltd.,  London)  ; 
Mr.  P.  D.  Malloch  at  p.  179  in  the  work  previously  cited;  Mr.  .J.  J. 
Armistead  in  An  Angler's  Paradise,  and  how  to  obtain  it;  and  Mr.  Tom 
Speedy  in  The  Natural  History  of  Sport  in  Scotland  with  Rod  and  Gun 
(William  Blackwood  &  Sons,  Edinburgh  and  London,  1920). 


192  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

as  were  still  there  that  could  live  more  than  three 
or  four  years  longer. 

So  far  there  has  been  little  indication  that  any 
of  the  trout  caught  have  been  cannibals — probably 
because  they  can  obtain  plenty  of  other  food,  and 
since  their  transfer  to  the  loch  have  not  been 
in  the  hungry  condition  in  which  they  certainly 
were  when  they  lived  in  the  burns.  On  one  occa- 
sion we  found  when  carrying  some  of  the  little 
brown  trout  from  one  of  the  burns  to  the  loch 
that  one  of  the  captives  on  the  journey  in  the 
small  can  in  which  they  were  being  carried  had 
caught  and  succeeded  in  half  swallowing  another 
little  trout  half  its  own  size. 

Both  Mr.  Malloch  (see  pp.  130-132  of  liis  work 
mentioned  above)  and  Mr.  Ilamish  Stuart  {The 
Book  of  the  Sea-Trout,^  p.  240)  agree  that  the 
young  of  the  sea-trout,  if  confined  in  a  loch,  grow 
rapidly  if  the  feeding  be  good,  and  are  as  silvery 
as  sea-trout  that  are  fresh  run. 

My  experience  in  regard  to  the  young  of  the 
sea-trout  put  into  this  loch  confirms  this  view,  as 
I  have  caught  sea- trout  up  to  nearly  2  lb.  in  the 
loch,  which  arc  in  no  way  distinguishable  from 
the  ordinary  fresh -run  sea-trout.     It  is  curious, 

1  Martin  Seeker,  London,  1917. 


7. 


THE  LOCH  PROBLEM  193 

however,  that  so  far  no  sea-trout  larger  than  2  lb. 
have  been  caught  in  this  loch. 

To  summarise  the  results  of  these  experi- 
ments, it  seems  clear  that  in  order  to  obtain  the 
best  results  the  following  conditions  should  be 
fulfilled : 

1 .  There  must  be  a  sufficient  supply  of  the  right 
kind  of  food  for  the  fish  in  the  loch  in  order  that 
they  may  grow  to  a  large  size. 

In  order  to  attain  this  object,  it  is  desirable 
that  the  loch  should  not  be  too  high  above  the 
level  of  the  sea.  As  Mr.  Malloch  says  in  the  work 
to  which  I  have  already  referred  (p.  179)  :  "  Lochs 
over  1000  feet  above  sea-level,  fed  from  snow  from 
surrounding  hills,  produce  little  feeding  until  May, 
and  owing  to  the  cold  fall  off  in  September,  thus 
giving  the  trout  only  four  months  of  good  feed- 
ing. On  the  other  hand,  lochs  at  or  near  sea-level 
produce  good  feeding  in  March,  and  continue  to 
do  so  for  three  months  more  than  their  Highland 
brethren.  It  will  be  seen,  then,  that  this  extra 
time  for  feeding,  when  extended  over  the  seven 
or  eight  years  which  constitute  the  life  of  a  trout, 
easily  accounts  for  the  difference  of  size."  More- 
over, as  the  same  writer  points  out,  in  a  loch 
which  is  very  high  above  the  sea-level,  not  only 

25 


194  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

is  the  feeding-time  shorter,  but  the  food  is  much 
scarcer. 

On  the  question  of  food  supply  it  is  worth 
while  to  recall  the  words  of  Mr.  F.  H.  Halford  :  ^ 
"  Food  supply  generally  is  .  .  .  chiefly  dependent 
on  the  presence  of  the  weeds  in  which  the  best 
forms  of  food  for  the  fish  are  to  be  found.  ...  It 
must  not,  however,  be  forgotten  that,  in  Marryat's 
terse  words,  '  while  floating  food  is  caviare,  sunk 
or  mid-water  food  is  beef  to  the  fish.'  Hence, 
when  engaged  in  his  examination  of  the  weeds 
and  the  animal  life  contained  therein,  the  fisherman 
should  remember  that  he  can  only  expect  well- 
fed,  good-conditioned,  healthy,  and  consequently 
game  trout  in  a  (loch)  which  contains  a  bountiful 
supply  of  crustaceans,  such  as  fresh-water  shrimps 
and  mollusks  such  as  snails  of  the  genera  Limnaea, 
Planorbis,''  etc.,  etc. 

Further,  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that 
the  number  of  fish  in  the  loch  should  be  regulated 
in  such  a  way  that  the  food  supply  may  be  suffi- 
cient to  enable  the  fish  to  grow  to  a  large  size. 

Where  the  fish  cannot  spawn  eff'ectively,  and 
it    is    therefore    necessary    to    renew    the    stock, 

1  Tlie  Dry-Fly  Man's  Handbook,  p.  319  (George  Routledge  &  Sons, 
Ltd.,  London). 


THE  LOCH  PROBLEM  195 

experience  alone  can  decide  the  number  of  fish 
which  should  be  put  into  the  loch  every  year. 
Spring  is  the  best  time  to  do  this.  The  number  of 
fish  which  should  be  put  in  will  obviously  depend 
chiefly  upon  the  amount  of  food  in  the  loch  and 
the  number  of  fish  caught,  and  destroyed  by  their 
enemies,  during  the  preceding  year.  In  many  lochs 
there  are  stones  under  which  the  small  trout  can 
find  protection  from  the  large  ones,  but  where 
there  is  no  protection  it  is  worth  while  to  put 
stones  or  small  di'ain  tiles  round  the  edge  of  the 
loch. 

In  lochs  where,  as  is  usually  the  case,  the  fish 
can  spawn  effectively  the  fish  increase  so  rapidly 
that  there  is  not  a  sufficient  supply  of  food,  and 
the  result  is  that  the  loch  is  filled  with  hungry 
small  trout.  When  it  is  remembered  that  it  is 
reckoned  that  every  spawning  trout  produces 
800  to  1000  eggs  for  every  pound  of  its  weight, 
some  idea  is  obtained  of  the  rapidity  with  which 
fish  increase.  In  many  lochs  Nature  intervenes 
and  the  enemies  of  trout — divers,  herons,  ducks, 
otters,  etc. — keep  the  numbers  down,  sometimes 
to  the  point  of  extinction  ;  in  other  lochs,  owing 
to  the  severe  frosts  and  other  causes,  it  is  only 
occasionally  that  the  eggs  are  hatched  out. 


196 


AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 


2.  The  loch  must  not  he  too  deep  or  the  trout 
will  not  rise  or  will  not  rise  well. 

This,  I  believe,  is  the  cause  of  my  failure  in 
several  of  the  lochs  upon  which  I  have  been 
making  experiments.  As  Mr.  Malloch  truly 
says  : 

"  When  a  loch  is  more  than  12  feet  deep  the 
supply  of  food  soon  becomes  scarce  and  the  trout 
small,  while  shallow  lochs  produce  plenty  of  food, 
therefore  large  trout.  ...  In  constructing  new 
lochs,  one  should  endeavour  to  have  as  much 
shallow  water  as  possible.  .  ,  .  The  best  depth  is 
from  five  to  nine  feet ;  beyond  twelve  feet  food 
becomes  scarce  and  trout  do  not  rise  well  in  deep 
water. ' ' 


rp^,, 


:7,^ 
/  7Hte'■,,#J/*■- 


XVI 

THE  SURGEON  OF  THE  DEER  FOREST 

"  In  the  Forest  and  on  the  moor  there  is  a  mighty 
Doctor  before  whom  the  greatest  physicians  and 
surgeons  in  the  world  must  bow  down.  Nature 
acting  in  a  pure  air  on  an  absolutely  healthy 
subject  will  work  wonderful  cures.  ...  It  seems 
marvellous  that  the  broken  leg  of  an  animal  so 
restless  as  a  stag  should  heal,  but  it  is  the  case. 
.  .  .  Such  a  wound  will  heal  and  the  animal 
ultimately  be  little  the  worse  for  it." 

Such  are  the  words,  in  his  book    Wild  Sport 
with  Gun,  Rifle,  and  Salmon  Rod,  of  Mr.  Gilfrid 

197 


198  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

\V.  Hartley,  a  stalker  of  great  experience,  and  the 
author  of  some  most  fascinating  reminiscences 
on  stalking. 

Every  good  sportsman  is,  of  course,  greatly 
distressed  if  he  has  the  misfortune  to  wound  a 
stag  without  being  able  to  kill  him.  No  matter 
what  care  may  be  exercised,  it  is  impossible,  even 
for  the  best  of  shots  who  has  been  accustomed  to 
stalk  for  many  years,  not  to  experience  some  time 
or  other  a  catastrophe  of  tliis  kind.  It  is  at  any 
rate  some  slight  consolation  to  know  that  Nature 
can  effect  the  marvellous  cures  of  which  there  is 
authentic  record. 

Much  can,  no  doubt,  be  done  to  improve  one's 
shooting  by  regular  practice.  Some  years  ago 
I  was  discussing  the  subject  with  one  of  the  old 
Highland  proprietors  who  is  a  first-class  rifle  shot, 
and  he  told  me  that  for  many  years  he  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  practising  shooting  at  a  small 
wooden  stag,  which  he  had  placed  in  all  kinds  of 
different  positions  and  at  different  distances  on 
the  hill.  He  added  that  he  was  sure  that  this 
had  greatly  improved  his  shooting.  This  inter- 
ested me  greatly,  for  I  had  for  a  long  time 
been  doing  the  same  thing  and  am  a  great  be- 
liever in  its  advantages.     Amongst  other  things 


THE  SURGEON  OF  THE  DEER  FOREST     199 

which  it  teaches  one,  is  to  judge  distances  more 
accurately. 

In  the  course  of  my  wanderings  through  many 
forests,  I  have  often  discussed  with  experienced 
stalkers  the  subject  of  Nature's  wonderful  cures, 
and  as  recently  as  the  year  before  last,  whilst  I 
was  stalking  in  a  forest  in  the  Western  High- 
lands, the  head  stalker  related  to  me  a  remark- 
able experience  of  his  own.  I  thought  the  story 
worth  recording  in  some  permanent  form,  but 
felt  that  I  myself  could  not  do  justice  to  it.  I 
therefore  asked  my  friend  the  stalker  if  he  could 
find  time,  after  the  stalking  season  was  over,  to 
write  out  for  me  the  account  of  this  particular 
experience. 

Some  five  months  later  I  received  the  account 
from  him,  accompanied  by  a  letter  which  contained 
the  following  words  :  "  You  will  find  the  enclosed 
story  about  the  wounded  stag.  And  indeed,  I 
would  prefer  stalking  through  wet  and  bogs  for 
six  hours  than  one  hour  trying  to  put  my  experi- 
ence on  paper."     Here  is  the  story  in  question  : 

"  As  I  promised,  I  am  wi'iting  about  one  of  my 
experiences  which  fixed  it  greatly  on  my  mind  as 
to  the  power  of  a  stag  to  recover  from  a  serious 
wound. 


200  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

"  The  year  1905  was  a  very  wet  season  in  this 
district,  and  while  stags  were  not  good  in  condi- 
tion, there  were  some  good  heads  to  be  seen.  I 
had  that  season  one  of  the  best  of  sportsmen  who 
knew  a  great  deal  about  deer  and  their  ways,  and 
had  an  experience  of  thirty  years  behind  him. 

"  My  beat  is  a  narrow  long  piece  of  high 
ground  and  stretching  well  in  between  three 
adjoining  forests  coming  to  a  narrow  point,  and 
on  this  narrow  part  there  is  a  small  corrie.  This 
corrie  is  the  best  for  keeping  stags  I  know  of, 
but  rather  difficult  to  stalk  except  with  north- 
west wind.  With  other  winds,  although  success- 
ful in  a  stalk,  one  is  sure  to  drive  the  rest  of  the 
deer  into  one  of  the  adjoining  forests,  the  stalkers 
in  which  were  very  much  on  the  alert  at  that  time 
to  make  the  best  use  of  any  move  in  their  favour 
on  the  marches.  There  was  a  long  spell  of  south 
and  south-west  wind,  and  although  there  were 
quite  a  lot  of  stags  in  this  corrie  we  had  to  wait  long 
for  favourable  wind  so  as  to  move  them  further 
into  our  own  ground.  About  September  25  we 
were  having  a  spy  at  the  corrie,  and  noticed  a 
newcomer  with  quite  a  big,  strong  head  of  ten 
points,  and  on  each  horn  very  peculiarly  shaped 
tops  with  cups,  the  three  points  on  the  top  in 


O     2 

, ,       z 

5    ~ 


THE  SURGEON  OF  THE  DEER  FOREST    201 

each  horn  curving  towards  one  another  until  the 
tips  almost  touched.     We  at  once  came  to  stalk 
him,    while    keeping    so    far    as    safe    with    wind 
between  them  and  the  boundary.     We  came  to  a 
point  we  considered  likely  if  they  kept  on  their 
way  feeding,  as  in  so  doing  they  would  pass  us 
within    a    reasonable    distance.     This    they    did, 
but   the   ten  -  pointer   keeping  well   at   the   end. 
When  he  was  within  150  yards  head  on,  all  of  a 
sudden  he  turned  right  round  and  began  feeding 
quietly  away  tail  on,  with  haunches  towards  us. 
We  were  in  a  high  fever  discussing  whether  he 
would  still  turn  and  follow  the  rest  of  the  deer 
or   had   made   up   his   mind   to   part   with   them 
altogether.       We    concluded    the    last    was    his 
decision,   and   so   prepared  to   have   a  long   shot 
if  he  would  give  us  the  best  chance.     When  well 
over    200    yards,    he    turned   half- broadside,    and 
immediately    the    gentleman    had   a   go   at    him. 
His   first   shot   went   high,   and   the   stag   bolted 
down  the  corrie,  and  with  his  second  got  him  high 
in  the  offside  hind  leg  and  broke  completely  his 
thigh-bone,  as  I  could  see  his  leg  swinging  out  to 
his  side  at  every  jump.     We  sat  down,  watching 
him  going  down  the  lower  corrie  until  he  came 
to  a  shoulder,  and  began  to  climb  up  the  ridge 

26 


202  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

towards  the  highest  part  of  the  mountain.     When 
almost  on  the  top  he  stood  looking  towards  us, 
and  after  a  long  time  lay  down.     When  we  saw 
him  settling  we  moved  quietly  to  where  we  left 
the  gillie,  and  gave  him  instructions  to  watch  and 
let  us  know  which  way  the  stag  went  if  he  got 
up  and  went  away,  for  we  had  to  make  a  long 
detour  out  of  his  view  to  get  round  and,  if  possible, 
to  get  above  him.      When  we  arrived  he  was  not 
to  be  seen  anywhere,  so  we  began  to  spy  and  get 
directions  from  the  gillie,  who  signed  that  he  went 
round   the   shoulder   before   us.     It   was   getting 
late  and  dark,  so  we  hurried  after  the  stag.     When 
we  got  round  the  shoulder  we  could  dimly  see  him 
limping  away  a  good  deal  below  us,  and  towards 
the  boundary,  so  we  considered  it  was  best  not 
to  follow  further  in  case  we  forced  him  over  the 
march  and  then  lost  him  in  the  dark,  for  we  were 
in    hopes   to    find    him    next    morning  near  this 
place,  and  possibly  dead.     As  he  did  not  catch  us 
following  him,  he  slowed  down  to  a  stand,  so  we 
left  him  there. 

"  Next  morning,  we  were  on  the  move  early 
and  got  up  to  where  we  left  him,  searched  every 
hollow  and  corner  on  our  side  and  as  far  into  the 
other  side  as  I  dared,  but  could  not  find  or  see  him 


THE  SURGEON  OF  THE  DEER  FOREST     203 

anywhere.  So,  when  home,  we  wrote  to  the  sur- 
rounding tenants  with  a  description  of  the  head, 
and  to  have  a  look-out,  when  we  would  expect 
the  head  to  be  sent  to  us  if  the  stag  were  found 
dead.  But  none  ever  came  across  him,  so  we  gave 
up  hopes  and  expected  he  was  dead  in  some  hole. 
"  The  following  year  the  forest  was  taken  by 
a  new  tenant,  and  there  was  no  more  thought 
about  the  lost  wounded  stag  till,  about  the 
beginning  of  October,  what  was  my  surprise  to 
see,  and  very  near  the  same  place  and  corrie,  a 
stag  with  the  same  kind  of  head  and  peculiarly 
formed  tops.  I  mentioned  to  the  gentleman  our 
experience  last  season  with  one  very  like  this  stag 
in  the  same  corrie,  but  I  remember  our  remark 
was  that  it  was  more  likely  one  of  the  same  breed, 
so  lost  no  time  in  spying,  as  everything  was 
favourable  for  a  successful  stalk.  We  got  to  a 
nice  distance,  and  shot  him  dead.  When  I  went 
down  to  examine  him  I  was  surprised  to  find  that 
he  had  no  brow-points,  and  instead  of  being  a 
ten  -  pointer  he  was  only  an  eight  -  pointer.  I 
could  not  see  anything  like  last  year's  wound  at 
the  time,  but  next  morning,  when  I  went  to  the 
larder  where  he  was  hanging  skinned,  I  noticed  at 
once  his  right  leg  showing  exactly  where  our  last 


204  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

year's  bullet  had  broken  it,  but  now  nicely  healed 
up,  and  it  looked  as  though  both  legs  were 
exactly  the  same  length.  I  could  not  say  if  he 
had  a  limp,  as  he  was  standing  all  the  time  till 
we  had  our  shot.  I  got  this  haunch  for  my 
own  use  and  had  it  boiled  and  stripped  of 
flesh,  when  I  could  see  plainly  how  well  it  joined. 
The  bone  was  jagged  at  both  ends,  and  the 
longest  points  exactly  touching,  and  the  missing 
parts  wxre  filled  up  with  tough  hard  flesh.  I 
noticed  a  splinter  on  the  outside  which  lay  so 
neatly  in  place,  and  even  to  both  ends.  The  stag 
weighed  15  st.  11  lb.  He  was  in  fair  condition, 
but  not  up  to  the  average  ;  he  looked  to  me  to  be 
much  heavier  the  year  before,  although  that  year 
we  had  much  better  average  weights." 

Lieut. -General  Crealock,  in  Deer  Stalking  in 
the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  relates  a  case  of  the 
same  kind  : 

"  I  remember,"  he  says,  "  wounding  a  Royal 
Stag  some  years  ago  at  Loch  Luichart — I  broke 
his  fore  leg  at  the  shoulder.  Having  no  dog  with 
me  I  never  succeeded  in  getting  up  to  him  to 
finish  him  before  dark,  and  so  lost  him.  The 
wound  was  not  mortal — it  had  shattered  the 
bone  ;    he  recovered  and  lived  for  several  years 


IN  ACHXASHEl.LACH    FOREST. 
By   FiNi./v  Mackinno-v. 


THE  SURGEON  OF  THE  DEER  FOREST     205 

after,  but  he  always  had  a  stiff  joint.  The  first 
year  he  never  shed  his  velvet  and  dropped  a  point 
from  his  royal  head  ;  the  second  year  he  cleaned, 
but  never  regained  his  royal  head  or  even  a  good 
one  again." 

In  Speedy 's  Natural  History  of  Sport  in 
Scotland  with  Rod  and  Gun  there  is  an  interesting 
account  of  a  thirteen-pointer  whose  hind  leg  was 
broken  above  the  hock.  In  the  forest  in  Inverness- 
shire  where  this  stag  was,  the  deer  were  regularly 
fed  during  the  winter.  "  When  feeding  com- 
menced he  came  regularly  as  before ;  but  in 
consequence  of  his  wound  he  was  reduced  to  a 
skeleton,  and,  being  very  weak,  was  kept  off  by  the 
other  stags.  He  used  to  hide,  however,  not  far 
off,  and  when  the  others  took  their  departure  he 
returned  to  the  feeding-place,  when  the  keeper 
attended  to  him  and  had  opportunities,  with  the 
aid  of  his  glass,  of  noting  the  injured  limb  at  a 
comparatively  short  distance.  Within  a  month 
after  feeding  commenced,  he  was  able  to  use  it,  and 
in  three  months  was  master  of  the  herd.  .  .  .  As 
the  new  antlers  grew  it  was  found  that  the  one  on 
the  opposite  side  from  the  broken  limb  was  minus 
the  brow-point."  He  was  shot  in  that  season,  and 
scaled  17  st.  12  lb.  clean,  being  then  nine  years  old. 


206  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

I  myself  had  a  personal  experience  which  is 
perhaps  worth  recording  in  this  connection.  I 
was  stalking  late  in  the  season — indeed  it  was  the 
last  day  that  I  was  out — and  we  had  been  unable 
to  get  a  shot  until  late  in  the  evening,  when  I 
kiUed  a  good  stag.  We  had  some  miles  to  go 
before  we  reached  the  end  of  the  road  in  the  forest 
where  the  motor-car  from  the  lodge  was  to  meet 
us,  and  the  light  was  beginning  to  fail.  We  were 
high  up  on  the  side  of  a  corrie,  and  were  preparing 
to  start  on  our  homeward  journey,  when  Sandy, 
the  stalker,  suddenly  turned  to  me  and  said,  pull- 
ing out  his  glass,  "  I  see  some  deer  down  there 
on  the  flat." 

In  a  moment  he  had  his  glass  on  them,  and 
said ;  "  Would  you  be  liking  another  stag  ? 
There's  a  fine  stag  with  hinds,  and  we  shall  not 
be  long  getting  down  to  them.  It's  been  poor 
sport  to-day." 

I  hesitated  for  a  moment,  and  then,  I  am 
afraid,  considering  how  late  it  was,  weakly  yielded 
to  the  temptation.  I  said  :  "  All  right  !  We 
shall  have  to  be  quick,  otherwise  we  shall  not  be 
able  to  see  what  we  are  doing."  We  soon  decided 
our  method  of  approach,  and  lost  no  time  in 
getting  down  the  hill.     The  deer  were  feeding 


THE  SURGEON  OF  THE  DEER  FOREST     207 

on  a  small  flat  piece  of  ground  near  the  ruins  of 
what  had  been  a  watcher's  cottage  many  years 
ago,  and  we  hoped,  by  getting  into  a  broad  and 
fairly  deep  burn,  to  reach  a  point  about  200  yards 
further  down,  from  which  I  could  get  a  shot.  The 
water  was  sometimes  up  to  our  waists  and  bitterly 
cold,  and  our  movements  were  necessarily  slow, 
but  we  arrived  at  last  at  a  point  which  was  about 
140  yards  from  the  stag.  Peering  over  the  top 
of  the  bank  of  the  burn,  we  saw  that  the  stag  was 
on  the  far  side  of  the  hinds  from  us,  and  was  lying 
down  in  a  dip  of  the  ground,  so  that  only  the  tops 
of  his  horns  were  visible.  After  we  had  been 
waiting  in  the  burn  for  some  time,  the  stag  got 
up,  and,  without  giving  me  a  chance  for  a  shot, 
walked  on  to  lower  ground,  where  he  began  to 
feed  in  such  a  position  that  it  was  impossible  to  see 
him  until  he  put  his  head  up,  and  then  we  could 
only  see  the  upper  part  of  his  horns.  After  a  few 
minutes  I  whispered  :  "I  really  can't  wait  here 
any  longer,  it  is  so  frightfully  cold,  and  the  light 
will  soon  be  gone.  Let  us  get  out  of  the  burn  and 
chance  our  being  seen  :  at  any  rate,  we  shall  be 
higher  up  there,  and  be  more  likely  to  see  the 
stag." 

We   cautiously   hoisted   ourselves    out   of  the 


208  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

burn  on  to  the  flat  ground  on  the  top  of  the  bank, 
but  even  there  could  only  see  the  stag's  horns 
and  a  very  small  part  of  his  head. 

Sandy  whispered  to  me  :  "  You  will  have  to 
shoot  off  my  back,  sir ;  it  is  the  only  chance."  He 
carefully  raised  his  back,  and  I  put  the  rifle  over 
it.  I  said  :  "I  am  too  low  now  ;  I  can't  see  the 
stag's  body." 

"  Ye '11  just  have  to  put  the  coat  on  my  back," 
said  Sandy,  pushing  towards  me  my  rolled-up 
shooting-cape,  which  was  fastened  up  with  a  strap. 
I  hoisted  the  rolled-up  cape  on  to  Sandy's  back, 
and  then  prepared  for  a  shot  by  putting  the  rifle 
on  the  top  of  the  cape — an  extraordinarily  foolish 
proceeding.  What  I  certainly  ought  to  have 
done  was  to  have  stood  straight  up  and  fired  at 
the  stag  from  my  shoulder.  However,  I  took  my 
shot  in  the  position  described,  and  something,  I 
don't  know  what  exactly,  caused  me  to  pull  off^. 

"  His  hind  leg  is  broken,"  said  Sandy,  as  away 
went  the  stag  and  the  rest  of  the  deer.  I  instantly 
handed  him  the  rifle,  as  I  knew  he  was  a  first- 
class  shot  at  running  deer,  and  told  him,  if  he 
could  get  the  chance,  to  finish  the  stag  off". 

After  a  short  interval  I  heard  a  shot,  and  then  a 
second  shot.     Soon  afterwards   Sandy  returned, 


THE  SURGEON  OF  THE  DEER  FOREST  209 

and  said,  "  You'll  never  see  him  again,  sir.  I 
never  touched  him." 

It  was  almost  dark,  and  we  started  on  our 
homeward  journey  along  the  narrow  foot-track 
through  the  forest.  Sandy  asked  me  to  walk 
first  so  that  I  could  go  at  my  own  pace.  He 
followed  me,  and  behind  him  came  the  gillie,  there 
being  only  room  to  walk  in  single  file.  It  is  not 
easy  to  carry  on  a  conversation  with  any  one  who 
is  walking  behind,  nor  did  the  fact  that  I  felt 
very  depressed  at  having  left  the  wounded  stag  in 
suffering,  perhaps  to  die  a  painful,  lingering  death, 
make  it  any  easier.  At  first  I  made  an  occasional 
observation  and  then  lapsed  into  silence.  As  I 
was  walking  along  engrossed  in  my  melancholy 
thoughts  I  noticed  that  the  path  was  becoming 
more  and  more  difficult  to  see,  and  indeed  hardly 
visible  in  the  growing  darkness. 

I  said,  "  It's  getting  awfully  dark,  and  I  can 
hardly  see  the  path."  No  answer.  I  turned 
round  :  neither  of  the  men  was  to  be  seen.  I 
stopped  and  shouted  loudly,  "Sandy!"  Still 
no  answer.  This  I  repeated  several  times  with 
the  same  result.  I  then  began  to  think  what  I 
had  better  do.  It  was  almost  dark  by  this  time. 
I  was  in  the  heart  of  one  of  the  largest  forests  in 

27 


210  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

the  North  of  Scotland,  miles  from  any  human 
habitation,  without  a  scrap  of  food,  with  an  empty 
flask,  and  soaked  to  the  skin  up  to  my  waist 
through  wading  and  standing  in  the  burn,  which 
was  in  flood. 

I  decided  to  retrace  my  steps  to  the  old  ruins  of 
the  watcher's  cottage  from  which  we  had  started. 
Taking  great  care  not  to  lose  the  path,  I  began 
to  do  this,  shouting  now  and  then  but  hearing 
no  reply.  I  tried  to  think  out  why  the  men 
should  not  have  been  following  me  on  this  path 
on  which  I  was  now  returning,  and  which  ran 
beside  a  broad  burn  which  was  in  spate.  I  then 
remembered  that  the  path  which  I  had  been 
following  across  the  forest  before  I  came  to  the 
burn  was  almost  at  right  angles  both  to  the  burn 
and  the  path  I  was  now  on,  and  it  occurred  to  me 
that  possibly  the  path  which  I  ought  to  have 
taken  lay  straight  across  the  burn,  and  that  the 
men  might  have  crossed  the  burn  and  gone  in 
that  direction.  I  had,  I  knew,  been  walking,  as  I 
always  do  on  these  occasions,  very  fast,  and  this 
made  me  think  it  not  unlikely,  especially  as  it  was 
so  dark,  that  the  men  had  assumed  that  I  had 
crossed  the  burn  in  front  of  them.  Being  careful 
not  to   lose   the   narrow   track   I   was   on   in   the 


THE  SURGEON  OF  THE  DEER  FOREST    211 

darkness,  I  discovered  the  point  at  which  I  had 
turned  up  the  burn-side,  and  found  that  the  other 
path  leading  up  to  the  burn  was  a  little  wider, 
which  encouraged  me  to  hope  that  my  supposed 
explanation  might  prove  to  be  the  true  one.  I 
then  waded  across  the  burn  and  found  tliere  was 
a  path  at  right  angles  to  it  on  the  other  side 
which  looked  more  used  than  the  track  which  I 
liad  just  left.  I  therefore  made  up  my  mind  to 
follow  this  path  for  a  time,  shouting  every  now 
and  then  in  the  hope  that  the  men  might  hear  me, 
and  if  I  did  not  hear  any  reply  I  would  then 
consider  whether  I  would  go  on  or  retrace  my 
steps  to  the  old  ruins  and  there  spend  the  night 
— a  cheerful  prospect  indeed. 

After  going  some  distance  along  the  path  I 
suddenly  heard  what  I  thought  was  the  sound  of 
shouting  a  long  way  off.  I  stopped  and  shouted 
more  loudly  than  ever,  and  then  heard  the  shouts 
coming  nearer,  and  very  soon  after  Sandy  and 
the  gillie  appeared.  It  turned  out  that  what 
I  had  supposed  had  happened,  and  that  they  had 
crossed  the  burn  thinking  that  1  was  still  in 
front  of  them. 

I  have  never  since  then,  on  my  return  from 
stalking,  walked  in  front  of  the  stalker  along  a 


212  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

path  which  I  do  not  know.  This  unpleasant 
incident  made  us  later  than  ever,  and  I  did  not 
get  back  to  the  lodge  until  nearly  10  p.m. 

The  following  season  I  was  again  stalking  in 
the  same  forest,  and  on  my  first  day  was  on  the 
same  beat  where  I  had  had  the  misfortune  to 
wound  the  stag,  as  described  above,  and  the  same 
stalker  was  once  more  with  me.  I  asked  him 
whether  he  had  heard  anything  of  the  wounded 
stag,  and  he  replied,  "  Nothing  whatever,"  add- 
ing that  although  he  was  sure  that  the  near 
hind  leg  was  broken,  he  could  not  be  sure  in  the 
darkness  at  what  part  exactly,  but  he  thought  it 
was  low  down. 

We  began  by  spying  a  corrie,  which  was  about 
three  miles  from  the  place  where  1  had  wounded 
the  stag  in  the  previous  season,  and  presently 
found  five  shootable  stags  which  were  together. 
After  watching  them  for  a  time,  Sandy  said, 
"  There  are  two  much  bigger  than  the  others — 
one  a  dark  beast ;  he's  a  good  stag,  with  only  one 
horn." 

"  All  right  !  "  I  said.  "  Let's  shoot  him  ; 
he'll  be  interesting  anyhow." 

We  then  stalked  the  stags  and  managed  to  get 
within  about  120  yards  of  them.     As  soon  as  I 


THE  SURGEON  OF  THE  DEER  FOREST    213 

got  a  good  view  of  the  beasts  I  noticed  that 
the  stag  with  one  horn  was  limping  sHghtly,  and 
it  flashed  through  my  mind  that  he  was  almost 
certainly  the  stag  which  I  had  wounded  in  the 
previous  season,  particularly  as  he  was  the  same 
colour  and  the  horn  seemed  to  me  to  be  very 
similar  to  what  I  recollected  of  the  horns  of 
the  wounded  stag.  Whilst  these  thoughts 
were  rapidly  passing  through  my  mind,  Sandy 
whispered,  "  Don't  take  the  stag  with  one  horn, 
sir,  but  the  yellow  stag  on  the  right  which  is  a 
much  better  beast." 

I  replied  by  shooting  the  dark-coloured  stag — 
this  time  in  the  right  place. 

"  You've  shot  the  wrong  beast  !  "  said  Sandy. 
I  said,  "  Oh,  no  I  haven't.  You  were  with  me 
last  time  I  fired  my  rifle,  and  I  then  fired  it  at 
that  very  stag  ;  let  us  have  a  look  at  him  and  see 
if  I'm  not  right." 

On  examining  the  stag  we  found  that  low 
down  on  his  near  hind  leg  the  bone  had  evidently 
been  fractured  just  above  the  fetlock,  but  had 
healed  completely  and  set  in  the  most  wonderful 
way.  This,  of  course,  was  what  had  caused  the 
limp  which  I  had  noticed,  and  also  the  absence 
of  the  horn  on  the  other  side  of  the  head.     After 


214  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

examining  the  stag,  Sandy  quite  agi'eed  that 
there  was  no  doubt  it  must  be  the  same  stag,  and 
we  both  thought,  although  it  was  in  very  good 
condition,  that  it  was  at  least  a  stone  lighter  than 
it  had  been  in  the  previous  season. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  the  case  of 
stags,  as  in  that  of  human  beings,  the  muscular 
movements  are  controlled  by  nerve  centres  whicli 
are  situated  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  brain. 


wl^^v.'fv  '•'  ^0^^;^^^^- 


XVII 


THE   SECRET   OF  THE   HIGH  HILLS 


"  I  SHALL  never  forget  that  day,  or  the  self- 
sacrifice  and  bravery  of  those  men  in  that 
Brigade."  The  speaker  was  a  chaplain  attached 
to  one  of  the  Highland  Brigades  which  had  been 
fighting  in  France.  "  We  were  told  that  a 
particular  position  had  to  be  taken,  and  the  work 
was  allotted  to  certain  of  the  Highland  regiments. 
My  work  was  to  attend  the  dying  after  the  attack 
was  over  and  the  position  carried  at  the  point  of 
the  bayonet.  Amongst  them  was  a  piper  who 
had  shown  extraordinary  bravery  in  the  assault, 
and  who,  though  wounded  three  times,  had 
persisted   in   carrying   on   and   playing   his   pipes 


215 


21G  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

until  he  fell  mortally  wounded  just  as  the  assault, 
after  very  heavy  fighting,  was  proving  successful. 
He  knew  he  was  dying,  and  gave  me  messages  for 
his  wife  and  family.  He  was  evidently  a  man  of 
strong  faith,  and  had  no  fear  of  death.  Just 
before  his  valiant  spirit  passed  away,  he  whispered, 
'  Oh,  if  I  could  only  see  the  high  hills  again  before 
I  die.'  His  words  deeply  impressed  me,  and  I 
have  often  thought  of  them  since." 

This  story  of  the  dying  piper,  told  to  me  in 
such  simple  and  touching  language,  set  me 
thinking  and  wondering.  I  could  not  help  feeling 
that  those  last  words  of  the  gallant  Highlander 
would  strike  a  sympathetic  chord  in  the  hearts 
not  only  of  those  whose  most  cherished  and 
sacred  memories  are  bound  up  with  the  High- 
lands of  Scotland,  but  of  countless  numbers  of 
others  who  also  love  that  country.  In  the  days 
of  peace  I  had  often  pondered  over  the  irresistible 
fascination  of  this  call  from  the  North. 

The  Highlands  of  Scotland  !  Is  there  any  one 
who  has  ever  seen  them,  or  who  knows  even 
slightly  something  of  their  romantic  and  enchant- 
ing history,  who  can  fail  to  understand  the 
passionate  devotion  of  any  one  with  Highland 
blood  in  his  veins  to  that  wonderful  land  ? 


THE  SECRET  OF  THE  HIGH  HILLS         217 

"  All  the  world  over  the  sons  of  the  heather 
and  the  mist,  in  however  distant  or  alien  lands 
they  may  be,  feel  always,  as  they  steer  their  way 
through  life,  tliat  there  is  a  pole-star  by  which 
they  set  their  compass  ;  and  that  some  day, 
perhaps,  they  or  their  children  may  steer  the 
boat  to  a  haven  on  some  rocky  shore,  where  the 
whaup  calls  shrilly  on  the  moors  above  the  loch, 
and  the  heather  grows  strong  and  tough  on  the 
hill-side,  and  the  peat  reek  rises  almost  like  the 
incense  of  an  evening  prayer  against  a  grey,  soft 
sky  in  the  land  of  the  north."  ^ 

From  tlie  lone  shieling  on  the  misty  island 
Mountains  divide  us,  and  a  waste  of  seas. 

Yet  still  the  blood  is  strong,  the  heart  is  highland, 
And  we  in  dreams  behold  the  Hebrides. ^ 

IIow  many  a  man  at  the  end  of  July  or  the 
beginning  of  August,  worn  out  with  his  work 
in  Parliament,  or  the  Law  Courts,  or  elsewhere, 
turns  his  face  and  his  thoughts  to  the  North,  and 
finds  even  in  his  anticipations  and  dreams  of  the 
days  to  come  refreshment  and  solace !  In  most 
things  in  this  life   the  anticipation  is  far  greater 

^  A  Lame  Dog's  Diary,  by  S.  Macnaughtan,  pp.  239, 240  (John  Murray, 
London,  1915). 

^  "  Canadian  Boat  Song,"  St.  Andrew's  Treasxiry  of  Scottish  Verse, 
by  Mrs.  Alexander  Lawson  and  Alexander  Lawson,  pp.  133,  134  (A.  &  C. 
Black,  Ltd.,  London,  1920). 

28 


218  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

than  the  reality,  but  not  so  in  this  case.  In  the 
hearts  of  how  many  men  and  women  do  the 
words  of  Aytoun  find  a  responsive  echo  ; 

Give  me  but  one  hour  of  Scotland, 

Southern  gales  are  not  for  me  ; 
Though  the  glens  are  white  with  winter, 
Place  me  there  and  set  me  free. 

Why  is  it  that  so  many  persons,  young  and 
old,  and  of  such  different  character,  habits,  and 
classes,  are  fascinated  and  held  by  the  spell  of 
this  country  ?  What  is  the  motive  which  is 
common  to  them  all,  if  there  is  one  ?  No  doubt 
with  some  it  is  the  longing  for  rest  and  change 
of  scene,  or  the  opportunity  of  meeting  old  friends 
or  relatives  in  the  far  North,  with  others  the 
desire  for  sport  or  the  gratification  of  artistic 
tastes,  and  with  others  the  ardent  yearning  to 
hear  again  the  old  familiar  sounds,  familiar  since 
their  early  childhood — the  sound  of  the  rushing 
burn,  the  breaking  of  the  sea  on  the  rock-bound 
shore,  the  call  of  the  sea-birds — and  to  see  once 
more  the  high  hills  and  silvery  lochs  and  scent 
again  the  fragrant  heather.  But  underlying  all 
these,  and  perhaps  more  often  than  not  quite 
unconsciously,  there  is  one  dominant  governing 


O      z 


5   s 


THE  SECRET  OF  THE  HIGH  HILLS         219 

motive  which  is  surely  spiritual  rather  than 
material — the  desire  for  the  environment  whieh 
will  uplift  and  ennoble,  and  with  it  bring  a  sense 
of  being  nearer  to  the  pure — nearer  to  the  things 
that  are  unseen  and  eternal — removed  from  all 
that  is  eoarse  and  material. 

I  well  remember  on  one  occasion  discussing 
the  question  of  the  future  world  with  a  Highland 
keeper,  and  the  emphatic  way  in  which  he  said, 
"  One  thing  is  certain,  and  that  is,  that  no  one 
could  be  an  atheist  if  he  spent  his  life  on  the 
mountains."  I  also  remember  that,  curiously 
enough,  the  same  observation  was  made  by  one 
Cambridge  undergraduate  to  another,  the  speaker 
having  been  in  the  habit  of  spending  days  and 
nights  camping  out  on  the  mountains  in  his 
father's  Highland  property. 

It  is  not  inappropriate  that  in  the  Gaelic 
language  the  words  used  to  signify  "  death  "  and 
"  died  "  are  not  the  same  when  used  in  reference 
to  a  human  being  as  the  words  which  are  used  in 
reference  to  an  animal,  the  former  words,  caoch- 
ladh  (substantive),  chaochail  (verb),  signifying  a 
change  or  passing  from  one  state  of  life  into 
another,  the  latter  bas  (substantive),  bhasaich 
(verb),  extinction  or  annihilation. 


220  AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 

On  the  sea  coast,  at  the  mouth  of  one  of  the 
sea  lochs  on  the  west  coast  of  Ross-shire,  I  have 
often  waited  for  the  dawn,  looking  up  the  loch 
towards  the  high  hills  in  the  distance,  and,  whilst 
I  waited,  there  would  come  into  my  mind  those 
impressive  words  of  the  prophet  Isaiah,  "  Watch- 
man, what  of  the  night  ?  "  The  watchman  said, 
"  The  morning  cometh."  No  one  who  has  had 
this  experience  and  seen  the  sun  rise  in  its 
splendour  over  the  high  hills,  flooding  the  surface 
of  the  sea  with  brilliant  crimson  light,  will  ever 
forget  the  scene,  or  the  uplifting  of  spirit  and 
sense  of  abiding  peace  which  it  imparted. 


INDEX 


Acantliyllis  caudacuta,  40,  55 
Acanthyllin  (/Iffantea,  55 
Aeroplane,  observations  on  flight  of 

birds  from,  50 
Age  of  stags,  1 10-11 
Air  speed,  i?5 
A  Joy  for  Ever,  181 
Alpine  swift,  4.1-2,  49-53,  56-7 
American  golden  plover,  33 
An  Angler's  Paradise,  191 
Applecross,  141-2 
Apus,  53 

Armour,  G.  Denholm,  58 
Attadale,  73 
Australia,  birds  of  fastest  flight  in, 

54 
Avicultural  Magazine,  54  n. 
Aytoun,  218 

Baker,  E.  Stuart,  55 

Balfour-Hrowne,  Vincent,  164 

Bas,  217 

Bhasaich,  217 

Birds,    speeds    of   various    British, 

35-6 
Birds  of  Australia,  twelve  swiftest, 

54 
Birds  of  Europe,  History  of,  53  n. 
Birds  of  Fastest  Flight  in  the  British 

Isles,  23-70 
Birds  of  O'reat  Britain,  146 
Birds  of  prey,  39-52,  57-70,  136-54 
Blackcock,  35,  37,  45,  50,  58-9,  65, 

138 
Black  game,  killed  by  peregrines 

and  eagles,  29,  66',  137-8,  149 
Blaine,  Captain  G.  S.,  45,  148 
Blanford,  W.  T.,  56 
Blue  rock  pigeons,  35,  44-5 


Bond,  William  Walpole,  47 

Book  of  the  Sea  Trout,  192 

British  Museum  (Natural  History), 

41 
Browne,  Bishop  G.  F.,  22  n. 
Buzzard,  49 

Caberslach,  74 

Calf,  deer,  attacked  by  eagle,  142 

Canadian  Boat  Song,  217 

Caochladh,  219 

Capercailzie,  probably  fastest  flying 

game  bird,  45,  50 
Carter,  H.  R.  P.,  57 
Cats,  killed  by  eagles,  38 
Chaetura,  51,  53 
Chaetura  caudacuta  caudacuta,  40, 

53,  55 
Chaetura  caudacuta  cochinchinensis, 

55 
Chaetura  nudlpes,  55-6,  57 
Chaochail,  217 

Cha\'tor,  Arthur  H.,  K.C.,  93-5 
Clough,  Arthur  Hugh,  21 
Coignafearn,  Forest  of,  71 
Common  swift,  40-42,  46,  49,  50,  53 
Corvidae,  36 

Crealock,  Lieut.-General,  204 
Crow,  killed  bv  eagle,  68-9 
Culture,  trout,' 189 
Curlew,  36,  69 
Currachd  an  righ,  179 
Cypselus  apus,  40 
Cypselus  melba,  40 

Danger  of  wounded  stags,  157 
Deer,  Homing  Instincts  of  Wounded, 

123-35 
Deer  calves,  attacked  by  eagles,  139 


221 


222 


AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 


Deer-hounds,  128 

Deer-stalking,    1,    2,    4,     5,    6-11, 

97-1 1->,  123-35,  155-64.,  170-81, 

197-214. 
Deer-stalking  in  the  HigJdands   of 

Scotland,  204 
Depth  of  loch  for  good  trout  fishing, 

196 
Downward  flight  of  the  eagle,  57-70 
Dresser,  Henry  E.,  53,  53  n.  55 
Dry- Ply  Man's  Handbook,  194 
Duck,  wild,  28-9,  36,  70,  136 
Duck-shooting,  165 
Duel  between  eagle  and  peregrine, 

61-2 

Eagle,  36-7,  49,  57-9,  62-5,  67,  69, 
70,  107,  136-8,  142,  153 

attack  on  a  full-grown  stag,  139 

downward  flight  of,  57-60 

food  of,  38,  136-7 

weight  of,  60 
Eggs,  number  of  trout,  195 
Eleonora's  falcons,  51 

Falco  cand  leans,  38 
Falco  gyrfalco,  38 
Falco  islandus,  38 
Falconer,  34,  36,  152 
Falcons,  28,  30,  36,  43,  46,  51-2,  57- 
60,  62,  68,  70,  143-5,  149,  151, 
153 

Eleonora's,  51 

Greenland,  38-9 

Iceland,  38-9 

Northern,  38-9,  57 
Fastest  bird  in  British  Isles,  57,  70 
Fealar,  74,  170 
Field  Studies  of  some  Rarer  British 

Birds,  47 
Fighting,  stags  killed  in,  73 
Finlayson,  John,  stalker,  Killilan,  66 
Finlayson,  stalker,  Applecross,  142 
Fisher,  Major  C.  H.,  149 
Fishing,  fly-,  13-22,  92-5,  113-22 

minnow-,  93 

salmon,  12-22,  85 
Flight  in  the  British  Isles,  Birds  of 
Fastest,  23-70 

of  the  eagle,  downward,  57 
horizontal,  37 


Forest,  Stormy  Week  in  the,  97-112 
Fox  cubs,  killed  by  eagles,  138 

dens,  139 
Fresh-water  shrimp,  184 
Frigate  bird,  54 
Fuligula  ferina,  30 

Gaelic  sayings  and  words,  HI,  179, 

219 
Gannet,  downward  flight  of,  63 
Geese,  speed  of,  36 
Glen  Carron  Forest,  8 
Glen  Shieldaig  Forest,  140 
Golden  eagle  {see  Eagle) 

weight  of  the,  60 
plover,  32-3, 35-6, 43,  45-6,  57,  69 

American,  33 
Goose,  solan,  63 
Goshawks,  143 
Gould,  John,  F.R.S.,  54,  146 
Green  Plover,  35 
Greenland  Fal  con,  38-9 
Greyhen,  149 
Ground  speed,  25 
Grouse,  29,  59,  68,  107,  136-7,  144- 

146,  149-51,  153 
Gulls,  43 

Gyrfalcon,  weight  of  the,  60 
Gyrfalcons,  38-40,  57,  60,  63,  66 

Halford,  F.  M.,  191  n.,  194 

Hares,  killed  by  eagles,  136,  138 

Harrier,  49 

Hartley,  Gilfrid  W.,  197 

Hawk,' sparrow-,  49,  143,  147-8 

HaM-ks,  30,  48,  136,  142-53 

Hereford,  88 

Highlands  of  Scotland,  fascination 

of,  216 
Hobby,  45-6,  49 
Homing  Instincts  of  Wounded  Deer, 

123-35 
Hounds,  deer-,  128 
Hummel,  74 
Hurrell,  H.  G.,  39 
Hutton,  J.  Arthur,  94-5 

Iceland  falcon,  38-9 

Jackdaw,  35 
Jura,  111 


INDEX 


223 


Kestrel,  35,  49,  11.3 
Killilan,  6() 

King's  night-cap,  I7'J 
Kite,  4!) 

Lambs,  kiikd  by  eagles,  138 
Lainfi  Dik/s  Diary,  2\1 
Landrail,  speed  of,  35 
Last  Stalk  of  the  Season,  170-81 
Letterx  to  a  Salmon  Fisher's  Sons, 

93 
Life  History  and  Habits  of  Salmon, 

etc.,  190,  193 
Loch  Carron,  10 
Leven, 185 

trout,  191 
Luichart,  204 
problem.  182 
Lodges  in  the  Highlands,  highest 

shooting,  171 
Lost  in  the  Forest,  209 

Macdougall,  stalker,  Fealar,  171 

Mclver,  Donald,  QQ 

Mackav,  John,  stalker.  North  Jura, 

HI 
Mackenzie,  Alick,  stalker,  Apple- 
cross,  141 
Maclennan,  watcher,  Colgnafearn, 

72 
ISIacnaughtan,  S.,  217 
Mallard,  30-31,  33-5,  70 
Malloch,  P.  D.,  190,  191  n.,  192-3, 

196 
Mar  Forest,  74 
Marryat,  194 
Matheson,    Donald,    stalker.    Glen 

Shieldaig,  140 
Meinertzhagen,     D.S.O.,     Colonel 

K.,    27,    31,    33,    35,   42,    50, 

52 
Merlin,  35,  45-6,  49,  147 
Mesopotamia,  swifts  in,  50 
Minnow-fishing  for  salmon,  93 
Mosul,  swifts  in,  50 
Mxickle  Hart  of  ]?en  More,  164 
Murray,  Charles  J.,  Esq.,  of  Loch 

Carron,  10,  140 

Natural  History  Museum  at  South 
Kensington,  41 


Natural  History  of  Sport  in  Scot- 
land v:ltli  Rod  and  Gun 
(Si)eedy),  150,  191,  205 

Nature's  cures  of  wounded  deer, 
196-214 

Needle-tailed  swift,  40,  52-3 

Nerve  centres  in  deer,  214 

Northern  falcons,  38-9,  57 

Orrin,  149 

Otter,  salmon  killed  by,  20,  86 

Partridges,  27,  29,  35,  147,  149 
Passeres,  smaller,  36 
Patt  Forest,  66 

Peregrine,  horizontal  flight  of,  26- 
40,  42,  45-6,  49,  52,  137 

downward   flight   of,   57-63,    68- 
70 

food  of,  38 

how  it  strikes  its  prey,  142-54 

weight  of,  60 
Perils,  of  stalkers,  81 
P  esc  hi  era,  21 
Petrels,  43 

Pheasants,  29,  35,  58-9,  144-5 
Pigeons,  37,  44-5 

blue  rock,  44-5 

rock-,  51 

speed  of,  36 

wood,  35,  152 
Plover,  33 

American  golden,  33 

golden,  32-3,  35-6,  43,  45-6,  57, 
69 

green,  35 
"  Poca  buidhe,"  180 
Pochard,  30-31,  45 
Portal,  D.S.O.,  Captain  C.  F.  A., 

26,  34,  52,  146,  151 
Prey,  birds  of  (see  Birds  of  prey) 
Ptarmigan,  3,  65,  107,  136 

Rabbits,  136 

Radclvffe,  Major  C.  R.  E.,   28-30, 

34,  39,  44,  65,  143,  151 
Red  sedge,  186 

Reminiscences  of  a  Falconer,  149 
Robinson,  W.  iL,  69 
Rock-pigeon,  51 
Rook,  35,  154 


224 


AMID  THE  HIGH  HILLS 


Royal  stag,  80,  174,  179,  204 
Ruskin,  181 

St.  John,  Charles,  32,  164 

Salmon  fishing,  12-22,  85-96,  113- 

122 
Salmon  Loch  in  Sutherland,  113-22 
Sanctuary,  123 
Saunders,  Howard,  53  n. 
Secret  of  the  High  Hills,  215-20 
Sedge,  cinnamon,  186 

red,  186 
Seebohm,  54 
Sheringham,  H.  T.,  96 
Shooting,  duck-,  165 
Shrimp,  fresh-water,  184 
Shrimp-weed,  184 
Snipe,  28-9,  65 
Solan  goose,  63 
Sovenson,  E.  S.,  54 
Sparrow-hawks,  49,  143,  147-8 
Speed,  air,  25 

ground,  25 

of  Australian  birds,  54 
Speeds    of   British  birds,  table  of, 
35-6 

fastest,  57,  70 
Speedy,  Tom,  151-3 
Speedy's  Natural  History  of  Sport 
in  Scotland  with  Rod  and  Gun, 
205 
Spine-tailed  swift,  40-42,  51-3,  6b- 

57,  70 
Spring-tide,  165 
Stags,  age  of,  110-11 

attacking  stalkers,  wounded,  155 

danger  of  wounded,  157 

eagles  attack  full-grown,  139 

stalking  {nee  Deer-stalking) 
Stalkers,  64,  71 

wounded  stags  attacking,  155 
Stalking,  1,  2,  4,  5,  6-11,  71-84,  97- 
112,    123-35,    155-64,    170-81, 
197-214 

mistakes  in,  6-10 
StalU  Abroad,  156 
Starling,  35-6 
Stormy  Week  in  the  Forest,  97-112 


Strathconan,  66-7 

Stuart,  Hamish,  192 

Surgeon  of  the  Deer  Forest,  196-214 

Sutherland,  A  Salmon  Loch  in,  113 

Swallows,  43 

Swan,  152 

Swift,  36,  40,  42-8,  50-51 
Alpine,  41-2,  49-53,  56-7 
common,  40-42,  46,  49-50,  53 
needle-tailed  or  spine-tailed,  40- 
42,  51-3,  55,  70 

Switch-horn,  73-4 

Tame  pigeons,  36 
Teal,  28,  33-6,  46,  57 
Tennj'son,  21  n. 
Three,  luck  in  number,  92 
Tickell,  55 
Tiercel,  42,  46 
Tracker,  128 

Trout  eggs,  number  of,  195 
loch,  how  to  improve,  182-96 

Velocity  of  falling  birds,  61 

Waders,  speed  of,  36 
Wallace,  Frank,  156 
Weight,   influence  of  in  flight,  30, 

60 
of  the  eagle,  60 
of  the  gyrfalcon,  60 
of  the  peregrine,  60 
Wild  duck,  28-9,  36-70 
Wild   Sport   with    Gun,  Rifle,  and 

Salmon  Rod,   197 
}yild  Sports  and  Natural  History 

of  the  Uiijhlands,  37,  164 
^^'illoughb3•,     Colonel     the     Hon. 

Claude,  141 
Wings,  54,  58,  142,  145,  150 
\\itherby,  H.  F.,  53  n. 
Mood  pigeon,  35,  152 
^^'oodcock,  28-30 
Wounded   Deer,  Homing   Instincts 

of,  123-35 
stags,  attacking  stalkers,  155-64 

danger  of,  81,  157 
^^'ye,  river,  12,  85 


Printed  in  Great  Britain  by  R.  &  K.  Ci.akk,  Limh  kd,  Ciinl'ttr^/i.