TRACKING DEER BY SLOT. 125 



the day. Two or three times in the day 

 he gets up, goes a little way, and returns. 

 Sometimes he goes down to drink, but always 

 comes back to his "bed." Those stags that 

 frequent the hills in the height of the summer 

 often choose places where the wind draws 

 through a scanty plantation of trees near the 

 ridge of a hill. There are seldom any trees, 

 not even firs or bushes, on the heights of 

 Exmoor. The winter gales are so severe that 

 trees will not grow, though they nourish in 

 the coombes " under the wind," and up to 

 the very line of the wind. Stags seem in 

 summer to like the draught of air under 

 trees, and indeed are hot by nature, and 

 always glad to cool themselves, as in water. 

 The day being over, the stag at dusk comes 

 out again to feed. 



Now the work of the "harbourer" is to 

 find where a runnable stag is in " harbour " 

 on the morning of the meet, that is, in what 



