DEER STALKING. 



The stout Earl of Northumberland, 



A Vow to God did make, 

 His Pleasure in the Scottish Woods, 



Three Summer's Days to taJce. 



With fifteen Hundred Bowmen bold, 



All chosen Men of Might, 

 Who knew full well in time of Need, 



To aim their Shafts aright. 



The Hounds ran swiftly through the Woods, 



The nimble Deer to take, 

 And with their cries the Hills and Dales 



An Echo shrill did make. 



The pursuit of deer with the rifle is termed deer- 

 stalking. To kill the serai-domesticated fallow- 

 deer requires little skill beyond that possessed by 

 a good marksman. The skill of the deer-stalker, 

 in pursuit of red-deer, is not only dependant on a 

 good use of the rifle, but is .shewn in his ability to 

 find and approach his game to do which success- 

 fully, requires the most unwearied perseverance. 

 Many of the Scottish forests, wherein the stalking 

 of deer in their wild state is practised, are of im- 

 mense extent. It is on such tracts of land as the 

 forests of Marr, Atholl, and Invercauld not in- 

 ferior to the smaller English counties in extent 

 that the red-deer is sought. The forest of Atholl 

 alone is said to be more than forty miles long, and 

 in one part eighteen broad, of which about 30,000 

 imperial acres are devoted to grouse, 50,000 partly 

 to grouse and partly to deer, and there are reserved 

 solely for deer-stalking 52,000 imperial acres. In 

 these vast solitudes if the longevity assigned to 

 deer by tradition be true the Highlander stalks 



