62 DEER-STALKING. 



for damages done to their turnips. It is a mistake to 

 surround a deer forest entirely. If it be done the fence 

 is made so that at certain places deer can pass into the 

 enclosed ground but cannot pass out, yet very few will 

 ever pass in ; and whenever a forest has been entirely 

 surrounded by wire, in the course of a few years it has 

 been found to be a mistaken- and short-sighted policy. 

 If it is done to a forest joining several others it is little 

 short of folly, for all interchange of blood is prevented, 

 and continually breeding in and in will surely tell a tale 

 in the long run, and must deteriorate the deer both 

 in quality and size. Apart from these considerations, 

 stalking in an entirely fenced ground must reduce the 

 sport very much to the level of shooting deer in a big 

 park, for whatever blunders may be made, whatever way 

 the wind blows it matters not ; it may cost a shot, but 

 the deer cannot get away; they are locked up, in a 

 large space, but locked up all the same, and they are 

 certain to be there the next day. " I'd as lief stalk a 

 deer in a sheep-fank," an old stalker once said to me, 

 on hearing of a neighbouring forest being totally en- 

 closed, and his feeling on the matter I believe to be the 

 correct and sportsmanlike one. For the benefit of the 

 uninitiated, a " fank " is a large stone enclosure used 

 by the shepherds to gather their sheep into. 



In speaking of the weights of deer, as already 

 mentioned, the writer intends his remarks to apply to 

 " clean " weight. It has always seemed desirable that 

 there should be throughout Scotland but one recognized 

 system of weighing, and that this should be done with- 

 out liver or heart. With these both left in the carcase 



