31 8 THE RED DEER OF EXMOOR. 



number was supposed to have dwindled to about 

 sixty, and this was probably not far from correct. 

 Since then it had steadily increased. 



Numerous and unavailing efforts were made from 

 time to time to arrive at something like a census, but 

 there is very little to go upon, and the estimates were 

 largely dependent on the preconceived ideas of the 

 person making them, as to whether too many or too 

 few deer were being killed. One ingenious calculator 

 assured Lord Ebrington that the actual number of 

 deer was one hundred and eighty-three. Judging 

 from the fact that he killed from eighty to a hundred 

 deer most years, and the herd during his Mastership, 

 though increasing, was only doing so slowly, there must 

 have been somewhere about five hundred deer in the 

 country. How rapidly they increased and multiplied 

 can be judged from the fact that it was not until the 

 four packs were accounting for over two hundred and 

 fifty deer a year that any substantial diminution in 

 the herd was apparent. There must, therefore, have 

 been, about 1902, somewhere about fifteen hundred 

 deer in the country. This may seem incredible to 

 some who have only been out staghunting, but, being 

 based on the actual returns of deer brought to hand, 

 is, the writer ventures to think, no exaggeration. 



Such was the problem to which Mr. Sanders had 

 to address himself, and he did so with vigour and 

 success in spite of a certain amount of well-meant 

 criticism as to the number of deer being killed. 

 Secure in the unanimous support of the committee, 



