98 FOEEST CREATUrvES. 



not only long practice to be able to do this, but keen 

 observation, intelligence, and quick-wittedness were also 

 necessary ; and many a man whom we meet plodding on 

 well enough in his calling, and whose understanding is 

 considered by his friends to be rather above than below 

 the average, would, I think, betray his natural incapacity 

 if required to master those signs and to deduce from 

 them the foregone occurrence. There are so many 

 chance circumstances to be taken account of, about 

 which it is impossible to give beforehand any rule, that 

 much must always be left to individual ingenuity in 

 coming to a decision. And this very circumstance 

 makes the study I am about to speak of particularly 

 interesting, for there is the excitement of eventually 

 discovering, whether your premisses were well founded 

 and your deductions correct. 



Although there is no difference in the formation 

 of the hoof of a stag and that of a hind, the slot which 

 one animal leaves behind it on the ground is very un- 

 like that left by the other. For the stag in walking 

 presses the two divisions of the cloven hoof together. 

 The hind does not. Hence chiefly the difference in the 

 slot of the two sexes. While in the impress left by the 

 stag's hoof the parts are strongly marked and well 

 defined in clear relief, in that of the hind, which is 

 slovenly and sprawling, they are not so sharply and 

 clearly shown. 



