NOVEMBER 259 



and Austrian castles. Here, then, we have a distinct 

 advance in the value of deer as flesh producers. It 

 remains only needful to overcome the prejudice against 

 venison, which is as irrational as the universal prejudice 

 against eels among the people of Scotland.^ Probably 

 this could be overcome if one of the fashionable hotels 

 — the Ritz for instance — were to make a specialiU 

 of venison, consummately cooked, and of the choicest 

 quality. 



I cannot dismiss this prose about antlers without 

 reflecting upon the prodigious waste of material in- 

 volved in the annual shedding of these ornamental, 

 ofiensive, and defensive appendages in solid-horned 

 animals. One is tempted to exclaim with the dis- 

 ciples of Christ — ' To what purpose is this waste ? ' 

 Why should a pair of cored horns serve throughout 

 the lifetime of a buffalo or an antelope, and the far 

 heavier headgear of a wapiti or red stag be laboriously 

 and painfully produced every summer, only to be 

 thrown off in the following spring ? A pair of antlers 

 of a red stag taken from the ooze in Wigtown Bay 

 weigh exactly 18 lb. One can understand the relief 

 experienced by the animal in ridding himself of such 

 a strain upon the muscles and tendons of his neck; 



' Eels were at one time an important article in the Scottish peasants' 

 diet. Camden describes in his Britannia (1586) the incredible quan- 

 tity of most savoury eels — incredibilem anguillarum sapidissimarum 

 multitudinem — which were taken by the people of Galloway in basketg 

 in autumn. One hundred years later Andrew Symson, minister of 

 Kirkinner, states in his Large Description of Galloway (1684) that 

 great quantities of eels were caught about Martinmas, salted in 

 barrels, and eaten in winter 'roasted upon the coals.' At the present 

 day it would be diflEcult to find a Galloway man, woman, or child 

 that would eat an eel, knowing what it was. 



