6 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



cannot eradicate of a virile and dominant race, and 

 that it forms a healthy natural antidote to the 

 enervating refinements of modern life. 



We had venison steaks for dinner that night, but 

 we saw no more stags on our rented forest of that 

 year. An old yeld hind was the only other deer we 

 killed that season. The suspicion has occasionally 

 crossed my mind that Hans and Edouard were more 

 surprised than ourselves that a decent stag had been 

 found and killed on their ground, which subsequent 

 experience proved to be too open and outlying to 

 harbour good deer. It has since been my fortune to 

 ,dll many a good stag on other parts of Hitteren, but 

 none of them have given me more pleasure than the 

 first. An examination of the track of the stag and 

 the lie of the ground showed that he had probably 

 been lying down, had winded my friend and his 

 stalker, and had run into my arms as described. 



A year or two after we obtained a lease of the 

 Forest of Strom, containing some of the best deer- 

 ground on Hitteren ; and as I learnt more of the 

 ground and the conditions of the sport, I was in the 

 habit of constantly stalking alone. Everything then 

 depended on one's own eye, ear, and hand, and the 

 chase thus became all the more enjoyable. On one 

 occasion I remember getting to within 10 feet of 

 a splendid eleven-point stag one of the best I ever 

 killed on the island without his being aware of my 

 presence or of what it was that killed him. 



It happened thus : In the centre of the island was a 

 large f jeld Els Fjeld the western half of which lay 

 in the Forest of Strom. Its steep sides were clothed 

 with pine-woods, interspersed here and there with 

 open glades and rocky dells, watered by trickling 



