THE STAG. Ill 



quite different. Those of the hind fall, as with sheep, 

 separately on the ground : the stag's on the contrary are 

 always united, and in a mass like a bunch of grapes. If a 

 slot, therefore, be found so indistinctly marked as to make 

 it impossible to define its character, the presence of few- 

 mets will be a most welcome accessory, and will at once 

 enable you to clear up your doubts. 



By their state too, their hardness or dryness, you can 

 learn whether the presence of the game w^as of recent 

 date or not: in short, every circumstance may be 

 made subservient to the one end, and, by weighing and 

 comparing each, you may arrive at a certainty of con- 

 clusion which would hardly seem possible. 



These are some of the signs by which the forester is 

 guided in his search, w^hen he would know where a stag 

 is to be found, his usual haunt, his size, and the path 

 he is wont to take in going to and fro. The size of the 

 traces themselves*, — of the imprint left by the animal's 

 hoof, — is naturally the standard by which his age, and 

 consequently his size, is calculated. This foot-print, we 

 say, is that of a stag of ten, another of one of fourteen ; 

 while all the features of a third are such that a stag 

 which left such an impression on the ground might, we 



* The dramngs here given are tlie exact natural size. By comparing 

 c, ttie slot of a stag of twelve, with d, the slot of one of eight points, 

 the difference in size is at once perceived. 



