Things went well with us, the shooting was excellent, the Chullacan and Backlas beats were especially full of birds that season. At Chullacan was a very primitive farmhouse with a small cooking place, and a room for us to serve as sitting-room and bedroom. The farmer's room was at the other end of the house, and in his case the smoke found its way through the hole in the roof. At this place we lodged twice for two nights, each time when we shot the beats on that side. We were pretty cramped, making up three small beds at night; the morning bath we took by standing outside the house in a state of nature while the gillies douched us with pails of cold spring water.
The first time that we went over on the three days shooting, I made forty-two, forty, and forty-five brace to my own shoulder, and on our return we enjoyed the comfort of a day's lazy rest amongst the comforts of Dalnawillan Lodge. We were all very happy, my two chums in raptures, and insisting on engaging their guns for the next season.
Man proposes, God disposes.
| Bag. | Dalnawillan and Rumsdale. |
|---|---|
| Grouse | 1098 brace. |
| Sundries | 67½ " |
The birds were healthy in a way when we left, but did not look well in plumage. It had been a wet draggly summer, and that partly accounted for it; but before leaving we saw a few very seedy birds on our Dunbeath march.
Dunbar had been very busy all the season for the Duke of Sutherland.
At that time the shootings and fishings of the Helmsdale Strath were divided into three great lumps of ground:
| Sir John Karslake the upper end, say about | 60,000 acres. |
| Mr. Hadwen, the middle, say about | 60,000 " |
| Mr. Meredith, the bottom end, say about | 60,000 " |
I cannot be precise about the extent, but that was about it.
Mr. Akroyd's, in Strath Naver, was almost unlimited, and included nearly all the salmon fishing of the Naver.