ABOVE THE PINE-ZONE 33 



passes and shot by hidden gunners as they cross. 

 This sounds easy, but it is not always so in practice. 

 If an old stag suspects a hidden foe he will make back 

 through the line of beaters at every hazard, the whole 

 herd following. 



In coursing the dogs used were big shaggy deer- 

 hounds, though the original breed has now nearly 

 died out. When a deer was found by the scouts, a 

 pair of dogs were slipped as near to it as pos- 

 sible, whilst others, kept in reserve, were laid on 

 as opportunity offered. If the ground was un- 

 favourable to the deer, the quarry was generally run 

 down and despatched by the attendants. 



The aboriginal deer of the hill flanks were larger 

 than those which have come down to our own day, 

 as numerous bones and antlers dug from the peat- 

 mosses testify. It is erroneously stated that the 

 only remnant of the original stock of wild red-deer 

 survives on the Devonian moors, as on the rugged 

 Martindale fells of the Lake District a herd of many 

 hundred still roam in as wild a state as Nature can 

 show; but even these hardly compare in size with 

 those of the same species of Northern Europe. 

 The red-deer has retired before human invasion, and 

 has degenerated from lack of range and food. 



