Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 150.djvu/274

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Access to Mountains.

[Aug

the finest rock-climbing in Scotland. It is to be hoped that the Duke’s sport does not seriously suffer, but in any case he is compensated by the popularity which his liberal action gives him.

But what is primarily in the mind of Mr Bryce is the deer-forests. Though limited to a portion of Scotland, these cover a great and growing area. A stag could range almost without leaving a forest from Ben Cruachan on Loch Awe to Suilvain on Loch Inver; from Lochnagar, the corner of Forfarshire, to Ben Slioch over Loch Maree. Almost every mountain between the Great Glen and Strathcarron, between Fort William and Ullapool, besides the great tract stretching from Loch Etive to the Cairngorms, and almost to Mount Battock, eastern-most of Scottish hills, lies in forest. This tract already includes most of the hills interesting to climbers, and it is yearly extending to take in the remainder.

If it were true that these hills were shut absolutely, and shut altogether to the general public; that attempts were being made to confine even the inhabitants to the public roads, or to get rid of them altogether,—the case would be a very serious one. This is the popular idea of a deer-forest, but it is happily far from truth. In reasonable hands, and in suitable places, deer-forests do not interfere with crofters. The stag keeps to the mountain; the crofter to his patches of cultivation by the sea-shore, or low down in the glens, or at furthest to his grazing on the lower slopes. “Depopulation cannot be directly attributed to deer-forests.”^[1] In reasonable hands deer-forests are open to the public for nearly three-quarters of the year. It is only in July and during the stalking season—August, September, and the first half of October—that it is of importance to exclude the casual wanderer. The reason for closing forests in July is best explained in the words of a Highland proprietor:—

“Though one would not mind a solitary man coming in a civil way, yet it would be death to the mainland forests were the stags driven out of the sanctuary in July. In the islands it is different, as they could not go; but on all the mainland hills, as the stags are settled in bands on the tops, the effect of disturbance would be that the man with unpicturesque hills would get his neighur's stags sent over to him. The Government people recognised this in sending the sappers, and instructed them to be out of forest ground before the beginning of July.”

Once more we may quote the evidence of Professor Ramsay. Speaking of deer-forests, he says:

“For these, quiet is essential during the three stalking months, but at other times of the year I have found that proprietors and keepers are ready to give all reasonable facilities to persons whose object is recreation or other innocent purpose. In May, June, or July, let any pedestrian present himself to a gillie, and ask how he may best be put through a forest, and he will get all he wants. . . . In May

↑ Crofters Commission, 1884, Report, p. 85 seq.—With sheep all the low ground is required for wintering; with deer there is no such necessity. The clearances of which the memory is not forgotten were not for deer but for sheep, the favourite nostrum of the day for the Highlands.—See evidence of Mr George Malcolm of Invergarry, and Mr Darroch of Torridon (Evidence, vol. iv. p. 2822, 2889).

[1] Crofters Commission, 1884, Report, p. 85 seq.—With sheep all the low ground is required for wintering; with deer there is no such necessity. The clearances of which the memory is not forgotten were not for deer but for sheep, the favourite nostrum of the day for the Highlands.—See evidence of Mr George Malcolm of Invergarry, and Mr Darroch of Torridon (Evidence, vol. iv. p. 2822, 2889).

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