The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-23 00:00:00

THE MOORS AND FORESTS.

(From the Inverness Courier.)
We continue our notes from the moors and forests

The following is a return of the sport at Strath--,
bran for the last three days, 9th, 11th, and 13th :
The sportsmen were Mr. Dalgety and Captain Mil-
ner. Grouse, 118 ; hares, 22 ; snipe, 2. Total, 142.
The grouse seem to begetting more plentiful as the
season advances, but the birds are very wild, owing
to the wet weather. They have not yet, however,
commenced to pack. Captain Milner last week
killed two fine trout in the river, one 51bs., and the
other nearly 7lbs. weight. At Gairloch, Lord St.
John and party have had good sport up to this time,
' considering the very unfavourable weather that has
prevailed since the 12th August. The grouse are
healthy and strong, and have bred much better on
these moors this season than for the last three years.
The following is a return of the game killed at
Strathmore Forest Lodge, county of Caithness
(moors of Glutt and Rumsdale), from 20th August
to 11th September inclusive :—By Mr. Hunt, W.S.,
238 grouse, 23 hares, 4 ducks, 1 blackcock. By
Mr. T. E. 0. Horne 7 stags, 2 hinds. The wea-
ther was very wet and stormy. On several days
the party were not out at all. Grouse were plenti-
ful, healthy, and strong on wing. Deer in good
condition, heads clean very nearly. At Kinlochewe
moors,on the 10th inst., J. F. Basset, Esq., and the
Hon. Viajor Gage killed 181 brace of grouse. At
Strontian, on the afternoon of the 7th, Captain
Riddell killed 8 brace of grouse and 2 couple of
snipes; and on the afternoon of the 11th, 84 brace
of grouse and 2 brace of blackgame. Birds nume-
rous and strong, but wild, owing to the long-
' continued wet weather. Mr. Somes has had fair
sport at Glensheirs (Laggan). On Saturday week
he bagged 31 brace grouse; on Monday, 14 brace, a
couple of hares, and a brace of snipe ; on Tuesday,
131 brace grouse, 3 hares, and a couple of rabbits.
Mr. Somes has also had some sport in the forest.
His last stag was brought down on the 12th, and
had eight points. At Braeroy the weather has
been quite fearful—eternal, never-ceasing heavy
rain—so that anything like regular shooting was
out of the question. Considering the weather the
sport has been good. A few days ago Mr.. Hoff, in
41 hours, and over one brace of dogs, bagged 21*
brace grouse and 6 hares ; and he can always secure
10 or 12 brace any morning or evening when the
weather admits of going out.
In Gairloch forest the Hon. St. Andrew St. John
has killed to his own rifle, up to Sept. 9, 3 stags, 1
hind; and on the 11th, 2 stags, one of these very
fat, with a royal head, the other in good condition,
with a head of six points. R. Orlebar, Esq., stalked
in the same forest on the 10th inst., and killed a
fine stag with a head of 10 points. On Tuesday,
Sept. 10, Earl Cowper killed two good stags, right
and left, one with a royal head and the other having
9 tines, weighing respectively 16 stone 11b. and 14
stone 1 lb. On Thursday, Sept. 12, Mr. Clare killed
a beautiful stag, weighing 18 stone 11b.' having a
very large head, carrying 13 tines, of the following
dimensions—Breadth across the brow, 30 inches ;
length of brow antlers, 111 in. ; length of top antlers,
P 141 in• • length of whole antlers, 35-lin. On the
2
same day the Hon. H. Cowper killed a very fine
stag, weighing 18 stone 81b , and having.a very
good head of 10 tines. In Kinlochewe forest, on
the 6th inst., S. F. Basset, Esq., killed a stag; and
on the sth inst. Capt. Campion killed a stag with
a royal head ; and Captain Basset a roebuck. At
Strontian, on August 307LordR.Grosvenor stalked
and killed a roe-deer. Lord Leigh also shot a good
stag on the 6th. Captain Riddell and a friend
killed 3 roebuck on the sth of September. In the
forest of Ceanacroc, Glenmoriston, Lord Dacre has
shot 28 stags. On Friday last, Edward Ross, Esq.,
shot 4 stags at Glendibidale, which makes 25 stags
and 2 hinds shot by him at the same place this
season. In the Reay and Stack.forests the Earl of
Dudley and friends have shot 18 stags; and at
Monar, H. W. White, Esq., and friends have shot
15 stags.
___

The following incident of a day in the forest is
recounted by our Duthil correspondent :—One day
last week, while the Earl of Stamford and War-
rington and party were out stalking in the Rothie-
murchus forest, a number of labourers, presently
employed in executing certain improvements about
the handsome shooting lodge recently erected in
Glenmore, were ordered by his lordship to join for
the purpose of driving the deer in the direction of
the shooting party. While thus engaged, one of
the men, John Grant, labourer, Deshar, observed a
large stag coming at the top of his speed in a
straight line to where he stood. Seeing if the deer
was to follow the course he was on certain destruc-
tion was inevitable, he made a hasty preparation
for defending himself from the fury of the mad-
dened animal, and happening to have a stout branch
of a fir tree in his hand, just as the stag was near
upon him he took aim and gave the animal a des-
perate blow in the brow which brought him to his
knees ; essaying to rise, John repeated the dose,
and in a few minutes the royal stag breathed his
last. It was a splendid animal, having a head with
nine tines. One of the gentlemen handsomely re-
warded the courageous Highlander for his intrepid
daring in laying the antlered monarch of the forest
with such a novel weapon prostrate at his feet.
A number of fine heads have been sent to Mr.
Snowie for preservation, among others a very fine,
wide, royal head from Arthur Walsh, Esq., Struy ;
two good heads from G. Bateson, Esq., Sbieldaig ;
one from Lord St. John, Flowerdale; one from T.
M. Talbot, Esq., Inchbae ; one from R. Orlebar,
Esq., Inchbae ; and one from the Earl of Seafield,
Balmacaan. Eight fine heads have been forwarded
by the Earl of Dudley from Reay forest ; twenty
very good stags' heads, and three roe heads, have
been sent from J. W. 0. Holmes, Esq., Coulan
forest.

MILITARY SCANDAL AT GIBRALTAR.

We read in the Army and Navy Gazette :—"A
general court-martial is about to sit, or probably is
now sitting, at Gibraltar upon a case which has
excited so much noise in that command, and is
happily of so very unusual a character in her Ma.•
jesty's service. that we consider ourselves justified
in laying before our readers such particulars as
have reached onr cars. It would appear that in the
2d battalion of the 7th Fusiliers a series of robberies
had been going on for some months past, and that
there was scarcely an officer of the regiment but had
more or less suffered from this depredation.
Wa`_ches, rings, trinkets, purses, plate—in short, all
articles of a light and valuable nature disappeared
in the most extraordinary manner from the quar-
ters of the officers. Servants without end were
discharged on suspicion, but no clue to the thief or
thieves could be discovered. At length Major
Birtwhistle resolved to bring matters so far as
possible to a climax ; and, assembling the officers in
the anteroom of the mess, hipointed out the absolute
necessity of solving the painful mystery; 'and, by
way of example, proposed that a committe of officers
should be named on the spot to search the barracks,
commencing with their own rooms. All present
willingly assented, with the exception of one officer)
Ensign Loverif ge, on whom, as it happened, some
slight sort of suspicion had already fallen, from an
overzeal he had shown in discharging his servants,
and offering personally a reward of £5O for the
discovery of the guilty parties. Ho was most righte-
ously indignant at the proposition, and declared
that his rooms should not be subjected to such an
indignity. We need scarcely say that this opposition
at once strengthened any floating idea against him,
and Major Birtwhistle, with praiseworthy firmness,
at once declared that the rooms should be at once
searched, and his the very first. The commit-
tee was instantly named, and on proceeding to
the quarters of Ensign Loveridge, they found in
a very few minutes the whole of the missing
property, [to the value of no less than £3OO, con-
cealed is cushions, chair-seats, sewed up in the end
of sheets, and in fact most artfully concealed. Pain-
ful as were those revelations, they were as nothing
compared to the relief infused throughout the re-
giment by the suspicions and unjust stigmas re-
moved from the heads of many humble yet innocent
people. There is, however, a still more distressing
feature in the matter. It oozed out, as things will
ooze out when once the wedge has been inserted,
that another officer had been for some time past
aware of the guilt of the culprit, had detected him
in the act of easing a boosy comrade of his sove-
reigns, and in a weak moment of temptation had
been prevailed upon to take part as hush-money,
and keep the secret. He too, is to be tried. Per-
haps still more extraordinary is the fact that since
these miserable circumstances became known, a
banker on.the Rock has produced a letter of credit
in favour of Ensign Loveridge, amply supplying
him with funds ; so that should he prove to be
guilty, the temptation to commit this evil cannot
be imputed to the ordinary pressure of the want of
means, and is indeed scarcely to be accounted for.
However this may be, and we shall doubtless hear
more about the matter, we can only at present offer
a word of sympathy to the officers of the 7th Fusi-
liers, in that such a calamity should have fallen
upon the domestic economy of so distinguished a
regiment; and we may at the same time ex-
press our satisfaction at the prompt and firm mea-
sures they adopted for rooting out the evil from
among them.

Arrangements are now being made at the Thames
Iron Shipbuilding Works, Blackwall,for the immediate
constructions of a new iron-cased screw frigate for the
Admiralty, of 6,815 tons, the cost of which will amount to
about half a million sterling. The wrought iron roof and
domes for the Great Exhibition Building of 1862 are now
rapidly progreatabr at thoo works.