290 STAGHUNTING WITH THE 



roadway, and is moreover sheltered by bushes, it 

 forms the more attractive course of the two. 

 Beaten deer almost invariably take to the artificial 

 channel, and for a time it leads them on in 

 comparative safety, but while they splash along 

 its cooling course the hounds run faster on the 

 firm green bank above them, and force them 

 further and further still, until they find 

 themselves confronted with the old mill building, 

 and in a trice are forced to pull up short or 

 dash right over the terrible drop of the old mill 

 wheel. Here on the wooden buckets they some- 

 times turn and confront their enemies, and a very 

 awkward place it is in which to handle them. 



Deer are very different in their readiness to 

 hght the hounds, and also amongst themselves 

 some appear to be much more ready fighters 

 than others. Amongst the many battles which 

 take place between the older stags in October 

 it seems surprising that more fatalities do not 

 occur, but few years pass without one or two 

 stags or male deer being picked up dead or 

 in a dying state at the time of tlie annual 

 combats. Broken necks and injured backs are 

 more generally the immediate causes of death 

 than lacerated wounds from the points of the 

 antlers, the force of the stag's charge being 

 more deadly than the actual aim which he 

 takes with the pointed weapons with which he 

 is armed. 



