88 THE RED DEER OF EX MOOR. 



supplies Lyshwell Farm, ran up it for about two 

 hundred yards before pursuing his original course. 



Sheep do not as a rule trouble the huntsman much 

 on the open moor — in fact, they frequently assist 

 him, for they pack together the moment they see a 

 deer, and afford an indication as to which way he has 

 gone. Although in an inclosed country they may 

 follow a deer across a field, they do not attempt to 

 follow one in the open for more than a few yards, so 

 that, even if hounds find them on the line, a cast 

 forw^ard will always put matters right. 



With ponies the case is different. They also will 

 turn and watch a deer without following him ; but, if 

 he can find the ponies on the move, a stag has often 

 been seen to follow them. We had an instance of 

 this in 1903 with a stag which had run through 

 Woolhanger, and gone away upwards towards 

 Chapman's Barrows. The wTiter only beheld from 

 afar off, but some of those who were nearer affirmed 

 that the stag drove the ponies in front of him. 



No one knows better than the hunted stag whether 

 there is a scent or whether there is none, and he 

 behaves accordingly. When hounds can only just 

 hunt the line at a slow pace the huntsman's task is 

 indeed a trying one, for the stag has then ample time 

 to go whither he is minded to look for other deer, 

 and to employ the thousand and one artifices of 

 which he is a master to delay the hounds, who, nine 

 times out of ten, are being pushed forward by an all 

 too eager field. It is on such occasions that the 



