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DEER STALKING ON 



slowly, cropping the tips of the shrubbery and the soft grey lichens 

 in their path ; once in a while stopping to sniff the air and peering 

 with great round eyes in every direction. The company is 'made 

 up of does, fawns, ' prickets ' (two-year-olds), and a couple of three- 

 year-old stags in their rear with antlers of no merit. Always alert 

 and observant, the does are the keenest to scent danger, acting as 

 sentinels for the lazy stags. Many a young fawn goes gambolling 

 and frisking like a lamb in the month of May by the side of its 

 dam. They pass to the leeward of the two men, until all of a 

 sudden every ear is cocked at full tension, every nostril is distended, 



HERD OF DEER SWIMMING IN RED INDIAN LAKE. 



as they detect that strange taint of the air which notifies to their 

 keen perception the presence of a human foe although yet at a 

 great distance off. A momentary pause till an unmistakable 

 whiff convinces the most dubious. Instantly with a sound like 

 the charge of a squadron of cavalry, the herd is off at a rattling 

 pace with their white scuts erect in the air. After two or three 

 bounds they all settle into a long swinging trot. Now and again 

 they turn for a short space, apparently to convince themselves 

 that the danger was a real one. 



After a brief interval has elapsed, at a point in the belt of spruces 





