WEIGHT OF DEER. 31 



If we look at the difference in size and weight of two 

 theee-year-old-beasts, the one belonging to a good, and the 

 other to a bad farmer, we shall find that difference to 

 amount to nearly double. The first animal is well fed for 

 the sake of the calf, both in winter and summer ; and the 

 last, from insufficient keep, loses in winter what it has 

 gained in summer, and requires double the food in the 

 succeeding season to restore it to what it was at the com- 

 mencement of winter. Thus it is with the deer. 



As a proof of this position, I may mention, that such 

 stags as have, for the most part, abandoned the Scotch 

 mountains, and pastured in the large woods in the low 

 country, have been found considerably to exceed the hill 

 stags in size and condition. The late Duke of Atholl killed 

 a hart that had been feeding for four seasons in the woods 

 of Dunkeld, where he remained, with twelve others, during 

 nine months of the year. He weighed thirty stone six 

 pounds imperial as he stood. His horns weighed thirteen 

 pounds two ounces ; but they were still inferior to such as 

 have been found buried in peat mosses. The fat on his 

 haunches was four inches and one-eighth thick, though he 

 was killed in July, much too early in the season to have 

 arrived at his full condition. 



In the year 1836, an outlying stag was killed at Woburn, 

 which weighed thirty-four stone imperial as he stood. 

 These are much higher weights than are to be found in the 

 forest of Atholl. 



In the forest of Glengarry, where the snow never lies 

 long, where there is much rich pasture in the low grounds, 

 sweet grass on the hill-tops, and large woods for shelter, 

 the late Glengarry killed a hart, which weighed twenty-six 

 stone after the gralloch or offal was taken out : now, allow- 

 ing six stone six pounds for the gralloch (computing it at 

 about one-fourth of the entire weight), this noble animal 

 must have been thirty-two stone six pounds as he stood. 



From the accounts that have been sent to me from the 

 various forests in Scotland, I am inclined to think that the 

 average weight of the best deer in Sutherland is superior 

 to that of the other forests. It reaches about fifteen stone 

 Dutch, sinking the offal ; and stags are occasionally killed 



