MIGRATIONS loi 



needed, and bit by bit it falls to make room for the thin 

 summer dress. The does are in much the same condition, 

 except that some are still carrying their small horns. They 

 do not keep with the stags, but prefer either the company of 

 their own sex or a solitary life. Whether or not the 

 fawns of the previous year return north with their mothers I 

 have never been able to ascertain. It is probable, however, 

 that they do so, and are separated immediately before 

 the young are born. The object of the northern or 

 return migration has never been discovered, and we are 

 still in the dark regarding both its object and its cause. 

 We will therefore leave the subject of migration, after 

 having watched the strange animals follow the example 

 of their ancient ancestors, watched them treading in the 

 footsteps of millions that have gone before. With slight 

 change in their appearance we have seen them cross the 

 same barrens and swim the same rivers just as they might 

 have done countless ages before man walked the earth and 

 became their enemy, once for the necessity of food and now 

 for sport. If present indications may be relied on, we may 

 hope that the same paths will continue to be used for very 

 many years to come ; yet, with the rapid changes of modern 

 times, it is not safe to predict the future of any animal. 

 The day may come when the migration will be a thing of 

 the past sooner than we believe possible, and we shall have 

 nothing to show that it ever existed except the paths cut in 

 the weathered rocks and the modern recorder of facts — the 

 photograph. 



