262 STAGHUNTING WITH THE 



warm upon its ledges and hollows add a glow 

 to every tint of the grey face of water-worn 

 rock. These ledges form perilous climbing, 

 and if a stag once takes his stand on some 

 out-lying bench, it is often most difficult to 

 get near enough to him with a rope to secure 

 him, while for hounds there is the double peril 

 of encountering his antlers or being knocked 

 over the edge to fall on to the jagged points 

 below, or haply to be drowned in the heaving 

 surf. 



The swimming powers of deer are very 

 great indeed, but they have their limits, and 

 deer are more often drowned at sea than is 

 supposed. The chill of the water is sufficient 

 at times to drown a beaten deer, and it has 

 occasionally happened that a stag or hind has 

 been seen to drown in comparatively still water, 

 when they might have returned with ease to 

 the beach. Many a deer too in striking boldly 

 out through the waters of Porlock Bay finds 

 him or herself suddenly entrapped in the race 

 of the tide way, where deep water succeeds 

 the comparatively few fathoms of the bay. 

 Swung round and round and hurried through a 

 choppy sea, at a distance of a mile or so from 

 shore, a beaten deer, already thoroughly chilled 

 with a long swim is very likely to fall a victim 

 to the curl and wash of the breaking waves, driven 

 by some sweeping westerly breeze, and then, 



