Deer for Hunting 99 



cliff (all of which accidents are more or less unavoidable), is the 

 liability of being hurt the first time it is hunted, when it gets be- 

 wildered. 



After the first time or two the deer learns how to take good 

 care of itself, so it begins to look out a line to follow, and when 

 tired promptly goes into a pond or barn. 



It seems to me that an establishment for training deer should 

 have the big park, (where those for sale are kept,) divided up by 

 hurdles and fences of different sorts, and the deer called up by 

 whistle to be fed. 



Then they would come racing across country to be fed, especi- 

 ally if only a little food were given, so that the first-comers got all 

 that was available. 



The boundary fence must, of course, be unjumpable. 



The deer would thus soon get into the way of going straight 

 to their points, and I rather think it would be as well to get them 

 used to hounds (perhaps small beagles well under control), which 

 should be made to hunt them occasionally for a short time about 

 the grounds. 



It \vould not be necessary to single out individual deer, for if 

 a bunch of deer were driven about a little, it would not only give 

 them exercise, but enable them to acquire confidence of being able 

 to outrun a hound, and also to be but little afraid of him. 



But this is not all, for if these beagles were stopped by men 

 on horseback (dressed in scarlet, as animals get to connect colours 

 with objects), the deer would soon know that the men out hunting 

 were THEIR FRIENDS and not their enemies, and it would thus be 

 easier to help them at the end of a real run. 



