DEER STALKING. 319 



and she was lame and poor. Another was killed 

 in the same year without a single tooth, and which 

 appeared, from the state of the gums, to have been 

 toothless some time. The venison of each was as 

 tough as Indian-rubber. 



The mouth affords no criterion of the age of deer, 

 except that the want of teeth implies extreme age. 

 Nor do the horns or slot afford any after the sixth 

 year. Some harts grow darker coloured, others 

 not, after the sixth year. 



The question of the red deer's age is a subject of 

 sufficient interest to sportsmen to warrant this di- 

 gression from our subject. We are, however, little 

 wiser than when we set out on the inquiry. Our 

 knowledge amounts to this, that numerous tra- 

 ditions assign an extreme longevity to the stag ; 

 naturalists, judging of red deer by the period of 

 gestation, and the time at which they arrive at 

 maturity, as compared with other viviparous ani- 

 mals, rank them amongst those which do not attain 

 a great age ; a stag has been known to live twenty 

 years, another thirty ; but how soon after the latter 

 period they become grey or white, remains to be 

 proved ; as also, how long they will live after hav- 

 ing grown grey or white. Nor is it certain that 

 whiteness is altogether the result of age though 

 we entertain little doubt on that point and not of 

 accident. That it should be caused by a wound, or 

 hurt, or disease, is not more improbable than that 

 a body-wound will affect the growth and shape of 

 the horn on the same side as the wound a fact 

 that has been often noticed, and of which there is 

 no doubt. 



