162 STAG-HUNTING ON EXMOOR. 



winter, they are apt to become overbold when they come 

 to tackle the stags. Mr. Bisset never lost a hound killed 

 by a stag, though he had a certain number injured; 

 but the present master lost one if not two in 1881, and 

 no fewer than five in 1882. In the season of 1885 a 

 stag turned to bay in the doorway of an outhouse and 

 no doubt thought himself unassailable, but the hounds 

 went straight at him and pulled him out like terriers 

 drawing a badger — a thing quite unprecedented, and 

 not it is to be hoped to be repeated. But indeed 

 hounds are apt to develop a marvellous contempt for 

 their game ; an old hound has been seen to catch a 

 view of a stag before the rest of the pack, go right up 

 to him and try to head him, as a sheep-dog would. 



The odd places in which deer have been killed are 

 many and various. More than one has jumped on to 

 the roof of a house lying under a hill and thence set 

 all at defiance. Once one managed in this way to get 

 into a first-floor bedroom. But, as we have said, deer 

 generally die in water, and the most troublesome form 

 of water is the sea. Deer swim with marvellous ease 

 and buoyancy, and will go out many miles to sea: 

 some of the best runs on record have ended in the 

 Bristol Channel. This, however, is very troublesome : 

 the deer must be taken if possible when they go to sea, 



