1 64 STAG-HUNTING ON EXMOOR. 



approach them. Sometimes they have been driven 

 headlong over great heights with too often one hound 

 or more to share in their death. Marvellous as it may 

 seem, hounds and deer have so fallen a height of fifty 

 feet and landed below uninjured. Thus the pack Is In 

 constant peril from antler, cliff, and sea. The cliffs 

 being wooded, It is not always possible to stop them, 

 and so more than a few gallant hounds have perished. 

 At sea they will sometimes overtake a deer and drown 

 it, but here again they have been the victims. Mr. 

 Bisset gives a piteous account of one hound so lost, 

 when several of the pack had gone to sea after a hind. 

 "For some time it looked very doubtful whether any 

 of them would get back, and when at last they did 

 they were in some places unable to get out of the 

 water on account of the precipitousness of the rocks ; 

 and where they could be got at and pulled out they 

 were unable to stand, and had to be hand-rubbed and 

 carried to the path above. A boat arrived and was 

 sent round the rocks to pick up stragglers, and three 

 were found and saved that would otherwise have 

 perished. One, a most promising hound of last year's 

 entry, and one of the last to leave the hind, never 

 returned to shore. Though the sea was quite smooth 

 he was observed for a long time struggling, evidently 



