CHAPTER THE LAST. 411 



ness, namely, with which the wounds they have received 

 generally heal. When however we consider their mode of 

 life, and the simple food they eat, there is less difficulty 

 in accounting for it. Fresh grass and. herbs and pure 

 spring-water as diet must necessarily act favourably on 

 the state of the blood j add to which, a life passed in the 

 open air, inhaling health at each respiration, and our 

 surprise diminishes at what we here see Nature do when 

 left wholly to herself. 



It is not at all uncommon to find old rifle-balls in 

 deer, and the marks of shots that failed to bring them 

 clown at the time. But where a bone has been shattered, 

 and the animal has still managed to escape, it is really 

 interesting to see how the splintered parts will loosen 

 and fall away ; and the wound then nicely closing, the 

 limb presents the same appearance as if it had been 

 amputated by a skilful surgeon. I once saw a deer that 

 had been injured, no doubt by a ball, in the fore knee- 

 joint j the stump had healed, and was perfectly covered. 

 Last winter (1851) I watched a boar that had also lost 

 the fore-leg; but in this case it was high up, close to 

 the shoulder. It was shot some weeks later, when I was 

 out in the forest, and so perfectly had Nature performed 

 her work, leaving behind no trace of a former fracture, 

 that some were present who insisted the animal must 

 have been thus maimed from its birth. There was no 

 scar, no unevenness of surface, to indicate that the bone 

 had once been broken, which however was the case. 



But the hardiest animals I have met with are the 

 fallow-deer: it indeed takes a good deal to kill them. 

 I have myself seen bucks with several balls in their 

 body, feeding some hours afterwards as quietly as if 

 nothing had happened. A roe is a very delicate crea- 

 ture, and can bear little ; a shot almost anywhere will 



