56 RED DEER. 



in their beloved stream. There is a project- 

 ing rock by the brook, standing out from 

 the hillside, to which a stag once retreated, 

 and, with his back to the precipice, kept the 

 hounds at bay. It was the same as if he 

 had been at the end of a steep wall, and he 

 would never have been driven from his 

 position by the hounds unaided by man. 

 Stags will often do this when they can no 

 longer keep in front of the pack. 



A high projecting rock, or ;i narrow path 

 that will only permit the hounds to approach 

 them in one direction, is a fortress. A stag 

 can face the hounds and defend himself with 

 his terrible brow-points so long as they are 

 obliged to meet him. But he knows he cannot 

 fight successfully if assailed from all sides ; 

 baffled by so many, he is ultimately pulled 

 down. So the stag chooses an isolated rock, 

 or a narrow footpath, as at Glenthorne, with 

 inaccessible rockv walls above and beneath, 

 and then turns on his pursuers. As he runs 

 he thinks, and reviews in his mind the 



