22 WOUNDED STAG. 



companions will not permit him to join them, but drive 

 him basely from the herd. In all my practice in the 

 Scotch mountains, I myself never saw an instance of such 

 a cruel expulsion, nor did I ever hear such a thing named, 

 or alluded to in any way, by the hill-men or stalkers, in 

 Atholl or any other forest. On the contrary, it is a 

 common occurrence to see, by means of your glass, the 

 hinds licking the wound of the stag ; and I shall be borne 

 out by all deer-stalkers when I say, that one of the most 

 mortifying circumstances in the chase is the utter impos- 

 sibility of retrieving your wounded deer so long as he has 

 power to run in the centre of the herd, which in such case 

 he will inevitably do, with the full consent of his companions. 

 Happy indeed would it be for the stalker, if the stricken 

 deer were expelled from the herd, for in such case no 

 wounded animal could escape with a good dog at his traces. 

 Nor should we see the sportsman's countenance, joyous as 

 it was in the morning, set in gloom at the close of day, 

 even at the convivial hour, and the pleasant fellow under 

 the pressure of such an occurrence converted into the 

 dullest mortal that ever sighed a sort of Master Stephen 

 gentlemanlike and melancholy. 



Hitherto, therefore, I have regarded the expulsion of a 

 wounded deer, alluded to above, as equally fabulous with 

 that tale which describes the big tears coursing each other 

 down a deer's cheeks when in distress. Mr. Jesse, how- 

 ever, the well-known author of some delightful and in- 

 structive works on natural history, has informed me, that 

 when a red deer is singled out for capture in Richmond 

 Park, for the purpose of being hunted by her Majesty's 

 hounds, the herd will not permit him to join them, 



