102 DEER-STALKING 



forester not to allow anyone to shoot at a stag under 

 fifteen stone, as is sometimes done. I am of opinion 

 that such a proceeding is distinctly injurious to the 

 ground, and I am quite certain that it is hardly fair 

 towards those friends who perhaps seldom get an 

 opportunity of bringing down a stag of any kind. 

 In a large herd of stags it is often extremely difficult to 

 ' get at ' the best deer, but in such cases it is seldom 

 you have not the choice of seven or eight of those 

 nearest to the point beyond which it is impossible 

 to crawl, and if the whole herd consists of ' trash ' it 

 is perhaps because it has been the practice for many 

 years to shoot all the growing stags with good but 

 not fully developed horns. In some forests, and 

 notably in the Reay, long tenanted by the Duke of 

 Westminster, it has been the practice to encourage 

 the shooting of old inferior stags, and to spare for 

 a certain number of years those with good growing 

 heads. The result has been excellent. It is not, 

 however, always easy to distinguish an old deer that 

 is ' going back ' from a young stag. The horns on the 

 latter are often furnished with points that look what 

 is termed ' rotten/ because they seem so ; but this 

 appearance is deceptive, and as often as not denotes 

 youth, not age ; the rotten look of the points being 

 really the blood in the horn, indicating vitality and 



