ARGYLLSHIRE. 



feeding cannot be resorted to owing to the difficulty of 

 distributing the food over so large an area. With 

 regard to the age of deer, Mr. Evans puts the outside 

 duration of a stag's life at thirty years, which I believe 

 is much more in accord with the facts than the reports 

 and traditions of stags and hinds that have lived to 

 attain ages varying from fifty to over one hundred 

 years. Mr. Evans bases his theory of the length 

 of stag life chiefly on the fact that in every forest 

 where they get the chance of living long enough, 

 it is common to kill them with some or even 

 all their front teeth missing, and he contends that 

 an incomplete mouth is an absolute indication of the 

 first sign of decay ; and as it is proved that stags begin 

 to lose their teeth even at fourteen years old, it is 

 probable that they do not attain a greater age than 

 thirty years. On the sheep ground of Tarbert Mr. 

 Evans shot a stag he had seen every season for sixteen 

 years ; this beast had been caught and marked as a 

 calf by Mr. D. Fletcher, the tenant of Tarbert, so 

 no possible mistake could be made, and when he fell in 



