300 STAGHUNTING WITH THE 



one over the skyline in tlie eye of the sun, may 

 seem Hght and narrow and undesirable, compared 

 with the same animal going straight away from 

 one between the tree stems of some endless wood. 

 The trained eye, however, judges by many signs, 

 and the verdict, though perhaps not strictly 

 reasoned out, is seldom found wrong when given 

 by one of the few who have the art of judging 

 deer aright, and who moreover do not allow 

 their wishes to be fathers to their thoughts. 

 For the temptation is great to add a year or two 

 to the age of a stag that is taking a desirable 

 line, or has made his appearance at a time when 

 sport has been ruling slow, and the afternoon is 

 well on. At such times it is a lamentable fact 

 that with many people every deer becomes a 

 stag, and everv stag a hunted one, and it is at 

 such times that one cannot but admire the tact 

 and equanimity with which a trained huntsman will 

 receive and appraise at its true value a vast 

 quantity of volunteered information. 



The hunting field has its valuable lessons 

 for those who have self restraint enough to 

 benefit by them, and one of its plainest teachings 

 is that of the duty to speak of nothing but 

 what one has really seen oneself. The hunting 

 of a twisting deer on a bad scenting day is a 

 matter so extremely difficult that it must 

 necessarily take many years of application to 

 the science to even understand what takes place, 



