OF THE HARBOURER. 57 



all the best efforts of the harbourer, the first because 

 the ground is either too hard or too friable to receive 

 a clear impression, the second because rain, though 

 essential for softening the ground, may often frus- 

 trate the work of the harbourer by filling up the 

 slots with water and making it impossible to tell the 

 slot of this morning from one or two days back. 



The time when a slot was made is often the most 

 difficult point the harbourer has to decide, and he 

 has then to look closely at minute details such as a 

 bruised blade of grass or crushed green leaf, which 

 would be withered had it been exposed to the mid- 

 day sun. Freshly exposed surfaces, whether of 

 earth or stones, will show moisture even when the 

 ground is dry. These and scores of other minute 

 signs the harbourer has to study to enable him to 

 judge the age, sex, and weight of the deer, whither 

 he has gone, and at what pace he was travelling. 



Having overnight surveyed his ground, the 

 harbourer must be abroad before daylight, and make 

 his way to some spot whence he may command the 

 route the deer traverse from the feeding ground to 

 the covert. He must approach up wind or they 

 will quickly discover him, and he must keep at some 

 distance off. Goss has the great advantage of a 

 really good pair of Zeiss glasses, and if he can once 

 catch sight of the deer he can sum him up at once, 

 and save himself much time and labour. If he fails 

 to get a view, he must visit the feeding ground and 

 see whether the stag he is looking for fed there or 



