54 DEER-STALKING. 



well away after the others the stricken deer jumped 

 up and was off before we were in shot, and having 

 seen us running up, we were speedily unsighted. We 

 followed for a long way but could see no more of 

 him, and tramped home ten miles in the dark abusing 

 our bad luck, for the dog must have passed within a few 

 yards of his hiding-place : it was just simply real bad 

 luck, and no fault of his. 



The weight of deer varies in different forests accord- 

 ing to food and climate : in some it ranges from fourteen 

 to twenty-one stone, and in others from thirteen to 

 seventeen; but they vary a stone more or less on the 

 average according to the weather in the spring. The 

 one just passed (1885) was in many parts of Scotland 

 unusually late and cold, and on the high grounds of 

 Perthshire, Forfarshire, and Aberdeenshire many feet 

 of snow fell in May, and laid for a considerable time, 

 stopping the growth of the grass and making it quite 

 a month late in sprouting. In forests thus visited the 

 deer killed in the following autumn scaled fully a 

 stone less on the average than they would do in 

 fine and open spring times. Where there is plenty 

 of wood on the low grounds for deer to shelter in during 

 the severity of the winter, they grow much heavier 

 than in forests where there is no such protection. In 

 the Duke of Hamilton's forests in the Isle of Arran it 

 is not rare to kill deer of twenty-five and even twenty- 

 seven stone ; in most forests, however, any stag between 

 seventeen and twenty-one stone is reckoned a real 

 good one. 



The best stags and the best hinds always being killed 



