TIIE STAG. 117 



shorter and of more sturdy build.* This circumstance 

 had to be taken into consideration, and could be 

 judged of by the length of step ; and the depth of the 

 footmarks in the marly or less impressible soil, gave 

 also an indication of the weight of an animal's body. 



We have now seen what accuracy of judgment was 

 expected of the forester after examining the traces of 

 the stag ; let us now turn our attention to the com- 

 panion whose instinct was of invaluable assistance in 

 finding them. This was the Ban dog or Leam Hound, 

 who, held in a leash, sought in all directions till he had 

 discovered the stag's slot on the ground, and then 



* I remember tliat H. S. H. the Duke of Coburg, once called my atten- 

 tion to this fact. It was in August, 1857, when out shooting in the Thu- 

 ringian forest. His Highness had shot two stags, one of twelve, the 

 other of ten ; and when they were both brought to the spot where we 

 sat to take our luncheon, he pointed out the very perceptible difference 

 in the build of the two. The Duke said that he was convinced of the 

 correctness of his assertion, that there were two distinct races of red-deer 

 in the forest ; one long in body, and elegantly formed, the other short 

 and more compact. The stags on the ground before us were evidently of 

 different races ; there was the same dissimilarity as there is in horses of 

 a different breed. They varied too iu colour : the one stag being, as 

 usual, of a reddish-brown, while the other was of greyer hue. On reading 

 Landau's "History of the Chase in G-ermany," a few weeks ago (February 

 1861), I found a passage taken from a letter of Landgrave William of 

 Hesse, 1580, addressed to Count George Ernest, of Henneberg, which 

 alludes to the difference between the stags of Hesse and Thuringia, veri- 

 fying the assertion of the Duke in this particular. The Landgrave 

 writes about " den hessischen Hirschen, welche nahmlich verstandiger 

 denn die groben banrischen Thuringswalder sind." — Landau, p, 251. 

 I 3 



