TRACKING DEER BY SLOT. 113 



fraying post, dead and dry, the bark having 

 been completely stripped from it — ringed — 

 up to about the height of one's chest. Deep 

 parallel indentations score the hard wood 

 where the points of the antlers have grooved 

 it, as if with an iron instrument, and in these 

 grooves hair still adheres. Numbers of sucli 

 firs thus destroyed are cut down for iire- 

 wood ; now and then one survives, not 

 being quite ringed, and lives with wide gaps 

 in its bark. Such softer woods as that of 

 the mountain-ash are not only barked but 

 broken. 



A meet being fixed, the harbourer goes 

 over to the district on the previous day. 

 In the afternoon he starts for the covers or 

 likely places, and if he meets a labourer or 

 others in the field inquires if any of the 

 hedges were cut in the spring. To these 

 hedges he goes and looks for the fresh ash 

 shoots which have sprung up since the 

 hedge was cut. These are sure to be eaten 

 off if a stag is about — sometimes a stag will 



