AN ENGLISH DEER-PARK. 301 



logical grounds it would seem quite possible that in 

 their original state the English deer did move from part 

 to part of the country with the seasons. Almost all the 

 birds, the only really free things in this country now, 

 move, even those that do not quit the island ; and why 

 not the deer in the old time when all the woods were 

 open to them ? England is not a large country, but 

 there are considerable differences in the climate and the 

 time at which vegetation appears, quite sufficient of 

 themselves to induce animals to move from place to 

 place. We have no narrowing buffalo zone to lament, 

 for our buffalo zone disappeared long ago. These parks 

 and woods are islets of the olden time, dotted here and 

 there in the midst of the most modern agricultural 

 scenery. These deer and their ancestors have been 

 confined within the pale for hundreds of years, and 

 though in a sense free, they are in no sense wild. But 

 the old power remains still. See the buck as he starts 

 away, and jumps at every leap as high as the fern. He 

 would give the hounds a long chase yet. 



The fern is fully four feet tall, hiding a boy entirely, 

 and only showing a man's head. The deer do not go 

 through it unless startled ; they prefer to follow a track 

 already made, one of their own trails. It is their natural 

 cover, and when the buckhounds meet near London the 

 buck often takes refuge in one or other of the fern-grown 

 commons of which there are many on the southern side. 

 But fern is inimical to grass, and, while it gives them 

 cover, occupies the place of much more pleasant herbage. 

 As their range is limited, though they have here a 

 forest of some extent as well as the park to roam over, 

 they cannot always obtain enough in winter. In frost, 

 when the grass will not grow, or when snow is on the 

 ground, that which they can find is supplemented with 



