SOME FINAL CONCLUSIONS 493 



necessary for the support of a deer. But it is to be remem- 

 bered that Jura is an island favourable to Deer, and that, 

 even so, when this examination by Mr Henry Evans was 

 made, the Jura forests were, to all appearance, stocked 

 beyond their capacity, for apart from the numbers slain for 

 sport, a ten years' count showed a heavy mortality, averaging 

 fully one hundred each year. 



Several factors of unknown weight tell on one side or 

 other of the scale. In the days before man, many natural 

 enemies, beasts and birds of prey, tended to keep down the 

 numbers of Red Deer, and though they were probably no 

 more deadly taken altogether than the sportsman's gun, yet, 

 contrary to the ways of the gun, they discriminated against 

 the more easily captured hinds and calves, a discrimination 

 which must have leant towards keeping the numbers at a 

 low ebb. On the other hand, food was perhaps more 

 abundant in the old days ; but then the Deer were larger and 

 would have required more. Probably we should be not far 

 from the truth, if in view of these facts we estimated that 

 in prehistoric times Deer were not more plentiful than, on 

 an average, one to 20 acres, even when the ground was 

 moderately favourable. But in the prehistoric days just before 

 man's arrival a very much larger portion of the country than 

 now was impassable bog and treacherous swamp. I think it 

 likely, therefore, that Scotland could scarcely have carried 

 more than the equivalent of about 700,000 Red Deer. 



Yet in 1916, notwithstanding that in Scotland just about 

 one-fourth of the total land surface is cultivated that is to 

 say, bears crop or permanent grass the number of domes- 

 ticated animals alone amounted to 8,635,918, or an average 

 of one animal for every two and one-fifth acres over the 

 whole of Scotland. Read in the light of Red Deer equivalents 

 this number is somewhat inflated, for although each of the 

 207,290 Horses, and 1,226,374 Cattle eats considerably more 

 than a deer, each of the 7,055,864 Sheep and 146,390 Pigs 

 eats considerably less. Making allowance for these diversities 

 it seems to me that the average population of the larger 

 animals, taken over the whole country, has been increased 

 about eight to ten times over. 



Almost all this gain has been made in the cultivated 

 areas, and a good and sufficiently accurate idea of the 



