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been known, but such cases can be left to look after themselves. De minimis non curat lex. And further, it must be remembered that there are other scientific workers who will not enjoy popular sympathy and do not deserve encouragement. It is fair to say that under the provisions of the bill both the oologist of Birmingham and the enterprising botanist who exterminates rare plants are excluded from its scope; but it is obvious that any relaxation of the general rights of occupiers will make easy the road for such scientific marauders, who may not all announce their purpose beforehand with the candour which has happily brought to nought the recently proposed expedition for harrying the birds’ nests of the Shetlands. But primarily and in the main, Mr Bryce constitutes himself the champion of men on pleasure bent. He makes an attack upon one class of her Majesty’s subjects who use the mountains of Scotland for the recreation of sport, on behalf of another class of her Majesty's subjects who would use the same mountains for the recreation of climbing.

Put in this form the case for the bill seems scarcely conclusive. Mr Bryce would probably urge that the one class is few, the other many. But this cannot be conceded without proof. It may be granted, indeed, that those who think they would climb are many; but what is open to question is whether the number who actually would climb Ben Alder or Ben Macdhui, and who are prevented by causes which Mr Bryce’s bill would remove, is greater than the number who at present enjoy their sport on these mountains. Even with the most accessible moors the same doubt arises. I have walked for many years unchallenged over the moors behind one of the largest of the Clyde watering-places, and do not remember ever to have met a soul. This objection, however, even if well founded, is not final. Mr Bryce would reply that while the one use is only limited by the number of persons desirous to take part in it, the other is exclusive and involves the closing of large tracts of country against all but a few favoured individuals of her Majesty’s subjects. Upon this assertion we may fairly join issue, and into the truth of this contention we will proceed to inquire. For my own part, I am content to approach the question from the same point of view as Mr Bryce. True, I must confess to having walked those uncultivated moorlands with a gun, to having shared the keen anticipations of grouse-drives on those mountains, and to knowing the all-transcendent excitement of deer-stalking. But I look at the question primarily as a lover of hills and a climber of them, and as concerned for the interests of those that love them and that climb them. Many such there are, loving the Scottish hills, and familiar with them in their winter, spring, and summer as well as in their autumn aspects. Alpine climbers and Englishmen are apt to think lightly of Scottish hills. They have only been upon them in September under the guidance of gillies, and for the purposes of sport and not of climbing. But let them try the same hills in March, or even in May and June, when the snow and ice still lie on the higher faces, though the daylight has nearly reached its longest; let them remember that, in the words of a well-known climber, though a mountain has but one top, yet the number of ways to that top are