DEER- STALKING. 53 



I have no doubt, that they had always such fair warning 

 when danger was near. 



We passed, during the day, several forest-baths, in full 

 use; i. e. moss-holes where the stags plunge up to the 

 neck and roll about to cool themselves, in summer and 

 autumn. When they come out again, black as pitch, they 

 look like the evil genii of the mountain. In former times 

 poachers used to fasten spears with the points upward in 

 these places, and when the stag threw himself into the 

 hole, he was impaled. 



Lord Breadalbane has a very fine kennel of dogs exclu- 

 sively for bringing the wounded deer to bay. They are 

 for the most part a breed between the foxhound and grey- 

 hound, but some are between the deerhound and foxhound. 

 The former are reckoned the best winded. The forester 

 is justly proud of these dogs, mentioning that some of 

 them, when chasing a cold (unwounded) hart with hinds, 

 were so knowing, that, should the hart give them the slip 

 at a burn, and run down it, they would stop their pursuit 

 of the hinds, recover his track, and hold him at bay all 

 night should no one come to their relief. The cunning of 

 the old Forest rangers is also remarkable. Once, when 

 some young dogs were being entered at the two-year- 

 old harts, a stag-royal presented himself, but, seeing 

 he was not the immediate object of pursuit, he witnessed 

 the whole chase from the shelter of a plantation, and 

 when the foresters returned, they again started him, close 

 to where he was first put up, when he dashed into the 

 thicket of the wood. There was a tame one kept at one 



