D E Ji R. 



253 



R'lt still the numbers have not only been very con- 

 siderable, but the stag, probably larger than at present, 

 as already mentioned, must have been a very old in- 

 habitant of jnany parts of Europe, and of these king- 

 doms among others ; and he appears to have shared 

 the fate of some other animals which have now perished 

 as races, in certain catastrophes, the nature of which 

 we do not, of course, very well understand ; but from 

 which a portion of stags escaped, perhaps, on account 

 of their fleetness. In the cave of Kirkdale in England, 

 in some parts of France, and in Italy, the remains of 

 the stag are found, blended in one ruin with the bones 

 of the elephant, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, 

 the hyaena, and the bear ; which is a demonstrative 

 proof that the whole must have at one time been 

 corn-habitants of the localities where their bones are 

 found. Hence there arises the curious question, to 

 what circumstances, chemical or otherwise, is it owing 

 that the elephant, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, 

 and the hyaena, have perished, while the bear and the 

 stag have remained to the present time ? 



It will be foreign to our purpose to enter upon the 

 formal discussion of this curious question, which be- 

 longs fully as much to geology as to natural history ; 

 and for the geological solution of which the data are 

 but scanty. But we may remark in passing that these 

 curious charnel houses, which carry our thoughts to 

 times long gone by, are all, we believe, contained in 

 fresh water deposits ; which abundantly shows that no 

 ocean flood could have borne on its tide those animals 

 which we now regard as foreign to the several locali- 

 ties ; and as the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the 

 hippopotamus are all semi-aquatic, found always low 

 down and as the hyirna is a burrowing animal, and 

 neither it, nor any of the other three, is well fitted for 

 flight ; while the stag is fleet, and the bear can climb, 

 we can suppose that, these two animals could make 

 their escape from a local flood, by which the others 

 were borne to those entombments in which their 

 bones are found. But what was the catastrophe ? 

 So far as we can judge, there has not been one but 

 many; and they do not appear to have been attended 

 by the action of any cause which disturbed the solid 

 strata of the earth, any further than perhaps mechani- 

 cal laceration of the surface; and, generally speaking, 

 if we search upward along the rivers near which those 

 deposits are accumulated, we might trace somethiu 

 like the empty basin of what has once been a lake, 

 which lake, by the bursting of its barrier, might have 

 produced exactly the same kind of result with which 

 we meet. But we have to do with living animals, and 

 not with the memorials of those that are dead. 



In Britain the stag, which was once so abundant, is 

 now very rare ; and tlie few that are met with in Eng- 

 gland arc objects of curiosity rather than any thin 

 else ; and, though royalty still keeps up stag hounds, 

 stag hunting even by these is a most ungallant and 

 even ignoble sport, a sport from which the " merry 

 men" of old would have turned away in mostbaronly 

 indignation. The deer is carted to the field, hunted 

 to a stand still, and then carried home again ; and 

 thus ends the sport equally unmeaning and unmanly. 



In former times it was far otherwise ; and nowhere 

 is this most dashing of all exploits in the field described 

 with more vigour or more truth of attention to the 

 other animals incidentally mentioned, than in Scott's 

 .beautiful national poem, " The Lady of the Lake.' 

 We shall quote a few lines of the opening : 



The state, at eve, had drank his fill. 



While danced the moon on Munan's rill, 



And deep his midnight lair had made, 



In lone Glenartncy's ha/el shade ; 



But, ere the sun his beacon red 



Had kindled on B< n-Voirhch's head, 



The deep-mouthed bloodhounds' heavy bray, 



Resounded up the rocky way, 



And faint, from farther distance borne, 



The echo of the hoof and horn. 



Yelled on the view, the opening pack, 



Rock, glen, and cavern paid them back. 



To many a mingled sound at once 



The awaken'd mountain gave response . 



A hundred dogs bayed deep and stroug, 



Clattered a hundred steeds along ; 



Their peals the merry horns rung out, 



A hundred voices joined the shout; 



With whoop ! and hark ' and wild halloo ! 



No rest Ben -Voirlich's echoes knew. 



Far from the tumult iled the roe ; 

 Close in her covert cower'd the doe ; 

 The falcon from her cairn on high, 

 Cast on the rout a wondering eye, 

 Till, far beyond her piercing ken, 

 The hurricane had swept the glen. 



Considered merely as poetry the passage which 

 we have quoted is very beautiful ; but Scott had so 

 keen an eye and so warm a heart to every scene and 

 every production of nature, that it was only with him 

 to glance at a subject, and it instantly became enve- 

 loped in a flood of light. We have the habit of the 

 stag quaffing the clear stream by moonlight. " The 

 hart by water brooks ;" next we have him plunging 

 into the forest for his nocturnal repose. Then at grey 

 dawn we have the whole cavalcade of the hunters to 

 horse ; and the bloodhound sent forward to find the 

 slot, and track und start the deer. But for this part 

 of the business we must refer to the article DOG. The 

 hunt hurries forward after the staunch deer finder ; 

 but not a hound gives tongue till the game is in view ; 

 when the whole open like thunder ; and it is hurry 

 scurry, and neck or nothing if the ground is in ;t 

 state of nature. Nor is the character of the other two 

 species of deer given with less truth ; the roe on the 

 mountain top speeds off like the wind to those cliffs 

 where no bloodhound could track him, nor pack run 

 him down. On the other hand the doe, or female of 

 the fallow-deer, a feeble and frightened creature, 

 crouches down among the bushes, as if to escape by 

 her insignificance from that fate from which her limbs 

 are unable to bear her away. Last of all we have the 

 falcon, perched securely on the rock, and equally safe 

 in mountain castle, and her impetuous wing, looking 

 down in utter astonishment, and contempt if you 

 will, at all this coil and clatter among helpless and 

 ignoble creatures, who must be content with walking 

 and running on the humble earth, while she can cleave 

 the air as swiftly as an arrow. 



In different parts of the world, as we have already 

 mentioned, the stag varies in size as well as in colour, 

 but its average height is about three feft and a half, 

 and its general colour reddish brown above, and 

 whitish beneath, with some black about the face, and 

 a list of the same down the hind part of the neck and 

 between the shoulders. The greatest known weight 

 of a British stag is that of one which was killed in 

 Aberdeenshire, namely, three hundred and eighteen 

 pounds, exclusively of the entrails, head, and skin. 

 It is alleged that, in Bavaria, the animal frequently 

 exceeds this weight. In Siberia, and some parts of 

 America, it is usually of very large dimensions ; 

 whereas in China, Corsica, and some other parts of 

 the world, diminutive varieties are found, which, in 

 bulk, scarcely exceed a dog of ordinary size. Indi- 



