DEVON AND SOMERSET. 299 



hard high road while at a hand canter, the 

 print of the hunted animal before them, where 

 hounds noses are of no avail. One of the last 

 attainments of a finished staghunter, is the art 

 of judging what stag is big enough or warrant- 

 able, under the different conditions in which 

 deer present themselves to the eye in the 

 hunting season. At other times of the year they 

 often show themselves under much more favourable 

 circumstances, both as regards distance and light, 

 and they seem actually bolder and more careless 

 of consequences when out of season, than in the 

 three months preceding the middle of October. 

 Deer vary so much in appearance, that of half 

 a dozen warrantable individuals it is quite possible 

 that no two may be good enough for the same 

 reasons. A stag with magnificent length of flank 

 and width of haunch, may carry a miserable head, 

 although it is true that he will generally be well 

 provided with horns if he is in good case as 

 regards venison, and again the different positions 

 in which deer are viewed cause them to bulk so 

 differently that one may readily be deceived 

 and give a wrong verdict. In looking down from 

 a height upon a moving stag against the light 

 green herbage of some strip of meadow in a 

 valley, his size may seem altogether dift'erent from 

 what it would appear if he were galloping broad- 

 side on over a plain of dark heather at an equal 

 level with the eye, or again a stag coming towards 



