WAYS OF RED DEER. 107 



for some years, and if they were not very 

 good shots, still if the deer was but wounded 

 they would follow him up for days till they 

 got him. Some twelve years since a man 

 returned from the gold-diggings, and who 

 seems to have been an adventurous, not to 

 say desperate character, shot a stag, one out 

 of three lying in some heather not far from 

 his home. The horns till lately hung in the 

 cottage. The fact soon came to the know- 

 ledge of the harbourer, who hunted him, as 

 it were, by slot, till at last he captured 

 him, with the assistance of a police-constable, 

 in the highway. In his pockets they found a 

 gun taken to pieces for convenience of con- 

 cealment, a revolver, and a long bowie-knife. 

 This appears to have been the last case 

 of deliberate deer-stealing. If any have 

 occurred since, it has been rather casually 

 than by deliberate pursuit. Deer wandering 

 into fields held by small farmers have, it is 



