332 THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FOREST 



roam. Even the Statute of 1682 prohibiting the traffic in 

 venison for seven years could not avert the evil day, and 

 before the close of the seventeenth century Red Deer and 

 shortly afterwards Roes were all but banished from the 

 Lowlands of Scotland. 



Henceforward, until their extension of range in recent 

 times, they were confined to the highland fastnesses of Ross, 

 Inverness, Argyll and Perth; for they had also been driven 

 from their haunts in the northern counties of the mainland, 

 and had long ceased to exist in Shetland. 



Here clearly the destruction of forest resulted in reduced 

 numbers and limitation of range. And as if to emphasize the 

 point, the fresh impetus given to the planting of trees in the 

 latter half of the eighteenth century, has led to a new in- 

 crease, in numbers and range, restoring the Roe Deer to 

 many areas which it had long deserted. It made its ap- 

 pearance in the lower valley of the Tay before the close 

 of the eighteenth century, and shortly afterwards appeared 

 in Clackmannanshire and Stirlingshire, in Fifeshire (before 

 1828), and Linlithgowshire; and between 1840 and 1845, it 

 had penetrated the Lowlands, for it then appeared on the 

 southern slopes of the Pentland Hills near Penicuik. 



It is difficult to decide whether the adverse influence due 

 to the destruction of the woodland led to physical degeneracy 

 in the Roe. Certain it is that the antlers recovered from the 

 ancient deposits and the early sites of habitation are of 

 unusually large size, but careful comparison led Mr J. G. 

 Millais to the conclusion that the large antlers of former days 

 could be equalled and even excelled by the best heads of the 

 present day forests of Scotland. From our point of view the 

 comparison is scarcely a fair one, for it is unlikely that the 

 best heads of former days are those which chance buried in 

 the bog and the luck of man recovered, or that primitive 

 man caught the finest and most active animals for his meals. 

 My own impression is that, on an average, in spite of the 

 new life given to the Roe by the fresh development of wood- 

 land, the standard of the modern antler is less than that 

 of prehistoric and early historic days ; and the analogy of 

 related deer in Scotland would support such a conclusion. 

 While, therefore, degeneracy in the^Roe must be regarded 

 as not proven, it was a likely result of the adverse influences 



