THE STAG 185 



a certain money value. Added to this, no doubt, 

 complaints of their depredations were urged. And 

 so the deer were herded into certain natural 

 enclosures, where, from their stay-at-home habits, 

 they settled down, equally to their own loss, and 

 the loss of sport. In some forests, a modern system 

 of fencing has been adopted, to keep them within 

 bounds. 



Thus severely isolated, and separated probably 

 by many miles from the next herd, there began 

 that in-and-in breeding, which led through the 

 usual processes of degeneration. The deer became 

 smaller in size, while tine after tine dwindled and 

 vanished from the antlers. Only two or three of 

 the past season's trophies will stand comparison 

 with those even of twenty years ago. 



The word "forest," as applied to their haunts 

 among our mountains, does not bear its ordinary 

 meaning, as it does elsewhere. It may be a sur- 

 vival from a former condition. The home of the 

 Hungarian stags differs, very materially from that 

 of the Scots deer. The more or less treeless forest 

 of Scotland is replaced, in the first-named locality, 

 by superb woods of deciduous, as well as coniferous 

 trees; in the latter by dense pine, fir, and larch wood. 



Amid all the differences in our forests, they agree 



