240 STA G- HUN TING 



Nature protects animals when they are from any 

 reason less able to protect themselves ; but as we 

 hardly ever hunt stags at the time they are hornless, 

 our experience throws little light on that question. 

 I have often seen hounds run very hard after stags 

 had begun rutting, and that even in unfavourable 

 weather. But it is difficult on any day to declare 

 beforehand that the weather, however unpleasant, is 

 unfavourable for the chase of the wild red deer : for 

 hounds will run when, literally, one can hardly sit on 

 a horse. Du Fouilloux propounds a theory that the 

 stag has a repugnance to a northerly or southerly 

 wind, 'in such sort that he will never runne into it 

 but takes it in his tayle,' to quote Turberville's trans- 

 lation. Lord Graves also roundly asserts that deer 

 always go down wind : but so far as my experience 

 goes they care little or nothing for wind, and whether 

 the wind blow towards it, from it, or across it, will 

 make their point. It is next to impossible to turn a 

 deer from his (or her) point if his mind be made up. 

 It is easy very easy, alas ! to divert a deer from a 

 good line to a bad one, but the contrary is very 

 difficult, even if you know the right way to set 

 about it. 



It is of little or no use to ride at a deer and crack 

 your whip, but by galloping parallel to him, between 



