ought to be. The yearly tenant system is fatal to any forest. Three years
running of different tenants will ruin the best forest in Scotland for a time.
Another great detriment is the keeping of too large a stock of hinds. In all
places where wild Stags grow fine horns, hinds are scarce. In some of the Ross-
shire forests the whole place is simply crawling with hinds, which eat up all the
feed arid sour the ground. It is no uncommon sight in October to see sixty to
one hundred hinds with one very poor Stag, which endeavours to hold them all.
I f he escapes the bullet his life is a turmoil of lust and misery. Such debauchery
and poor living would ruin the best. It is easy to explain why the Scotch Deer
horns have deteriorated, but not to convince the owners and lessees of forests
that the selfishness of man will not allow any improvement to take place.
Money enters into everything, and in the case of Scotch Deer it is, except in a
few cases, the sole item that seems to matter. The Deer increase, but the sport,
in its pure sense, is rapidly deteriorating. A few years ago there were only the
’old and famous forests, and in them the sport was conducted in as sportsmanlike
a manner as it is in Austria to-day. Mr. Blank went out with chances equal
to those of the Duke, for with the rifle all men were and should be equal; but
now it is more the exception than the rule to find the host adopting this
simple mode of doing things. For this reason the practice of big game hunting
in foreign lands or in our Colonies is every year growing in popularity
among genuine lovers of the rifle; for once any sport is ‘ tainted’ it is a case of
‘ Good bye.’
Some of the best days of my life have been spent in pursuing the Stag in the
Highland forests, and so well have I been entertained by my hosts, who were
genuine sportsmen, that one seemed to forget that the Highland Stag was only
an animal living within circumscribed limits. The magnificent scenery, the beauty
of the game, the exhilarating air, the excitement of the find, the stalk, the shot,
the exaltation of triumph, and the companionship of good fellows, all make the
sport an ideal one for a healthy man, and it is a pity it cannot always flourish
in its cleaner aspect.
Deer-driving is seldom practised in the Highlands except in the very largest
forests at the end of the season. Every year drives take place in Glenquoich,
Strathvaick, Balmacaan, Mar, Ballochbuie, and occasionally in other large forests,
but the sport, except as a spectacle, is not of a high order, nor are the best heads
killed in this manner.
In the great extent of country formerly rented by the late Mr. Winans in
MMI