THE STAG. 89 



the game was to be found. Their habits and instincts 

 were studied till the knowledge thus acquired became 

 almost a science. The signs that could betray their 

 presence, the peculiarities which could inform about 

 their size, were carefully noted ; and thus, when not 

 even a single animal had been seen, their exact haunt 

 and their almost exact proportions could be asserted as 

 surely, as though each one had been passed in review 

 before plunging into the thicket. I shall never forget 

 what a marvel it was to me when, many years ago, on 

 walking through the woods of Nassau with a forester, 

 he suddenly stopped, and looking at the ground said : 

 "a stag had been there," and more especially when he 

 added, " he was a stag of twelve.'* It seemed like second- 

 sight thus to know, by the tracks in the sand, what sort 

 of antlers the creature bore on his head. 



This knowledge is one of the first requisites for a 

 forester. He must learn to distinguish between the slot 

 of a stag and that of a hind : to tell the stag's age by 

 the impression he has left behind on the ground, and to 

 know whether he moved leisurely or in full flight. But 



give the keeper who had told him the haunt of the stag a diicat for each 

 one he shot. These pieces were coined on purpose : on one side was a 

 stag, on the other the lines 



" I was bought and sold 

 " For this ducat of gold." 

 "Durch den Ducaten 

 "Ward ich verrathen." 



