258 EXTRACTS FROM NOTE-BOOKS. CH. XXXVI. 



A red-deer, killed in Perthshire or Argyleshire, 

 by the assistance of railway or steamboat, is in 

 Liverpool or Manchester long before he has been 

 sufficiently kept to suit the palate of a civic 

 epicure ; and the poacher has such facilities in 

 getting rid of his killed game that half the risk of 

 his occupation is gone. The stag is scarcely cold 

 before it is whisked off two counties away." 



Considerable numbers of red-deer are killed in 

 the neighbourhood of preserved places and forests 

 during the winter season. When his natural 

 grazing becomes scarce, a stag, if there be a 

 turnip-field within half a dozen miles of his haunts, 

 is sure to find it out, and pay it nightly visits ; at 

 first, coming alone, but soon accompanied by a herd 

 of followers, who do great damage to the farmer 

 by trampling down and eating the turnips. The 

 owner of the field, if he has so little of a High- 

 lander about him as to be able to resist having a 

 shot at the deer himself, is sure to have some 

 hanger-on or acquaintance who will take the trouble 

 off his hands : accordingly, when the moon is of a 

 good age, a hole is dug in the middle of the field 

 during the day-time, while the nightly marauders 

 are miles away. Towards twilight the poacher 

 conceals himself in this rough hiding-place ; if 

 there is snow on the ground he puts on a white cap 



