284 STAGHUNTING WITH THE 



Every labourer who can get close enough 

 to the carcase of a newly killed deer loves to 

 pluck a wisp or two of the long rough hair 

 that adorns the neck of a stag, or the winter 

 jacket of a hind, and with this ragged lock in 

 his hat band he may be seen for the next 

 few months, or until the next opportunity 

 occurs of replacing it with a fresh one. The 

 workmen on certain farms have exceptional 

 opportunities of assisting at the taking of deer, 

 and inasmuch as a pair of wet legs is always 

 handsomelv rewarded, there is no little enthu- 

 siasm displayed when the hunted animal comes 

 to his final stand still. While the chase is in 

 full swing, one is often met with the anxious 

 enquirv *' Is he nearlv run up I " and if the 

 replv be in the affirmative tools are cast 

 hastily aside and hobnailed boots go pounding 

 down the waterside track to the accompaniment 

 of much hard breathing and manv a hoarse 

 ejaculation. Then, when the weir pool is being 

 lashed into foam, and the hounds are plunging 

 in on all sides to the assistance of their 

 luckier and more adventurous kennel mates 

 that have been first to come to close grips 

 with the stag, brawnv arms are stretched 

 through the leafy alder boughs, the brown 

 many pointed horns are seized as thev turn 

 with some anxious movement of the mightv 

 head, and with a heave and a shove and a lustv 



