HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND VEER 339 



doubt, had something to do with the diminution of the red deer, 

 and the gradual civilisation and increase of population in the 

 two islands increased the want of arable and pasture lands and 

 diminished the forest. When the Normans came, although the 

 deer were saved from destruction at the hands of the common 

 people, and were in a measure preserved, still the hunting of the 

 nobles and of the outlaws put a limit to their increase. As 

 century after century went by and forest after forest was laid low, 

 the deer began to be grievously affected from restricted feeding- 

 grounds and interbreeding. That they suffer from this (unless 

 new blood is constantly introduced) in each great park is obvious, 

 and in several Government forests they have become extinct from 

 this cause within the memory of men now living. 



All things considered, we may congratulate ourselves on the 

 splendid home — I hope a permanent home — that the red deer 

 has found in Scotland. The glorious mountain scenery, the 

 scattered pine and fir forests, the innumerable tumbling streams, 

 broad rivers, and lovely lakes — studded with islands to which the 

 deer swim off for concealment and repose ; the wonderful scenic 

 effects of the mists alternating with sunshine, the snow that 

 covers the ground during the winter and dapples the mountains 

 in spring and autumn, the glorious flush of the purple heather in 

 the late summer, the lichen-painted rocks interspersed with the 

 greenest moss and gay in August with yellow ragwort : this is 

 a setting worthy of what we may regard — even reviewing the 

 splendid past of Megaceros and Alces — as a very noble represen- 

 tative of the Deer tribe. 



