16 THE RED DEER. 



the same, and it reaches maturity one year later. 

 So much granted, it may be added that all the 

 evidence we have seems to show that the period 

 of gestation has no bearing upon the length of life, 

 for some animals are born at a far earlier stage 

 of development than are others. The grizzly, for 

 example, undoubtedly outlives any creature dealt 

 with in this book, yet the period of gestation lasts 

 only six months, the mother being denned up in her 

 hibernation when the birth occurs, and remaining 

 so for a considerable time after. A grizzly cub, 

 when born, weighs less than two pounds, the 

 weight of the adult being probably six hundred 

 pounds ; yet, though the grizzly may live to eighty 

 or ninety years of age, it has reached maturity by 

 its third year. 



By reason of these facts we realise the impossi- 

 bility of arriving at any basis by which the allotted 

 span of an animal's life can safely be estimated. 

 The weasel family alone provides a chaos of con- 

 tradictory facts calculated to produce a sense of 

 mental paralysis, and the ' cervides ' are no less con- 

 founding. There is no logic in the ways of nature. 

 The pace at which an animal lives, the abundance 

 or otherwise of its chosen food, and its fertility, 

 are factors which to some extent determine how 

 long it can hold out against its foes, which normally 

 is the only condition which decides its length of 

 life. It would seem to be a provision of nature 

 that the wild stag ceases to play any considerable 

 part in the reproduction of its kind ere it reaches 

 twenty years of age, and how long it exists there- 

 after is dependent upon conditions. It no longer 

 figures in a capacity that is of any consequence 

 to the community to which it belongs ; that 

 is, it is no longer able to hold out against its 



