IX 



A TAXTALISIXG QUEST 



The red deer of xVsi.i Minor i.s by no means widely dis- 

 tributed over the peninsula. The essential conditions of 

 its existence — forest, seclusion, and above all running- 

 water — are conibincd in conipai'ativel}' few of llic elevated 

 ransces of tlu> countrv. In a fu-iuoi- cliMiiter 1 have recorded 

 a trip wliicli I made fov the purpose of liuntinp: tlie wild 

 goat or ibex of that country, and how, in the course of our 

 search for that aninuxl, we, by chance, discovered a moun- 

 tain and a forest where the red deer existed in tolerable 

 numbers. Our stay there liad been necessarily restricted 

 to a few days, and (hiring that time, my companion 

 secured two stags, one of them heing of great size, and 

 carrving a grand head of fourteen ])oints. while neither my 

 son nor I o-ot a chance. Cousiderinu' the spliiidid dimeu- 

 sions of these (her. whidi are. I tliinlv, even larger than the 

 Ilimalavaii J)"r<is/n(j/i</ . and inferior to no olln-r species 

 of red deer in {\\r world, except the wapiti of America, it 

 was not to be expected that 1 should sit down [•aiieiitly 

 under this rebuil". in the autumn of hist 3'ear, I 



