4 THE RED DEER OF EXMOOR. 



current, which will carry them on half-way to 

 Langport. 



As the Parret forms the eastern boundary of the 

 red deer country, so the Taw may fairly be said to 

 form its western limit : a very different kind of river, 

 for while the first meanders across broad level plains, 

 kept in its uninteresting course by carefully con- 

 structed river banks, the latter rushes down from the 

 hills of Devon a clear sparkling stream, tumbling 

 over rocks, and dancing merrily on its way between 

 wooded hills and fertile meadows till joining with the 

 even more impetuous Torridge. The two together 

 form the Bideford River, dear to lovers of Kingsley, 

 and so reach the sea. The Bristol Channel, of 

 course, bounds the country on the north. 



The southern boundary is hard to define, for the 

 deer have strayed far to the south, and outlying deer 

 have been seen on the hills south of Wellington, on 

 Dartmoor, and as far south as Totnes. 



Probably a line drawn from a little below Tiverton 

 Junction by Crediton to the Taw below Eggesford 

 would enclose all the country in which deer habitu- 

 ally lie — roughly speaking, an area of fifty miles by 

 forty. 



It is with the northern half of this wild, beautiful 

 region of hills and valleys, rough, heathery moors, and 

 clear, dashing streams, that we have most to do, for 

 there, on the highest plateau above the sea, lies 

 what was once the Royal Forest of Exmoor — a small 

 area compared with that of the surrounding wastes, 



