ALLAN MATHIESON, Crofter, Drumuie (50 or 55)—examined.
1281. The Chairman.
—Did you hear the statements made by the previous witness, and did you understand them ?
—I heard and understood all that the preceding delegate said.
1282. Do you agree with him ? have you the same opinions, or do you wish to add anything ?
—I agree with what he said. I saw my neighbour letting out two stirks in the morning, and these stirks were taken home dead at night owing to the badness of grazing.
1283. Sir Kenneth Mackenzie
—What time of the year?
—In summer.
1284. Sheriff Nicolson.
—Where is that grazing? is it above or below the road ?
—It is below our crofts in the big moss. Is it not very hard now to be paying heavy rent in such a place as that?
1285. Sir Kenneth Mackenzie.
—Was it in the moss they were lost?
— Yes.
1286. Sheriff Nicolson.
—Drowned?
—Yea. I have seen the same man getting a beast out on another occasion, and bringing it home dead from the same place.
1287. The Chairman.
—Do you mean the beasts were smothered in the moss?
—They were smothered in the moss.
1288. Sheriff Nicolson.
—Was there no herd to look after them?
—No.
1289. Don't you keep a herd ?
—No.
1290. Mr Fraser-Mackintosh.
—Have you anything else to say?
—We are so much confined in the place; we are so bounded that we have no elbow room on any side, and I may say there are four tacks about us. We are surrounded by four tacks, and shut in by them, so that we have no escape on either side, as if we were shut up iu a fold. We want a slice of hill pasturage that we may have a sheep stock. I have been nearly forty years in the place, and I have not fleeced a sheep, and sometimes I am reduced to twine a thread to darn my stockings for want of wool. It would be very unfair if we do not get a piece of hill pasture.
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