278 



The Living Animals of the World 



into position when the first 

 few hinds moved past a 

 liundred yards below us. 

 They were very uneasy and 

 highly suspicioas, but fortu- 

 nately did not stop ; and in 

 another moment, to my joy, 

 the big stag came slowly 

 behind them, and offered a 

 fair broadside in the very spot 

 where I should have wished 

 him to stand. Tlie bullet 

 took him through the ribs, 

 certainly a trifle too far back, 

 but he gave in at once, and 

 1 oiled 150 yards down the 

 hill, fortunately without hurt- 

 ing his horns. A really fine 

 Highland stag in his prime ; 

 weight, 16 stone 2 lbs., with 

 a good wild head of ten points, 

 and good cups on the top."' 

 " TIcarsday, October 5th. 

 — We negotiated the stiff 

 climb, and McLeish, leaving 

 me behind a rock on the 

 summit, returned some 

 distance to signal directions 

 to the pony-man. He came 

 back just as the stag returned 

 roaring down the pass he had 

 ascended ; and as the mist 

 was blotting oat the land- 

 scape, I feared he would come 

 right on to us without being 

 seen, but, as luck would have 

 it, he stopped and recom- 

 menced bellowing within 

 seventy yards. I ne\er heard a stag make such a row, but nothing of him could we see. It 

 was most exciting, lying flat on a slab of rock, hoping devoutly that the mist would rise, if 

 only for a few seconds. The tension had grown extreme, when there was a momentary lift in 

 the gloom, and I made <jut the dim forms of the deer just as a big hind, which I had irot 

 noticed, 'bruached' loudly wilhin twenty yards of us. The outline of the stag was barely 

 visible when, after carefully aiming, I pressed the trigger, knowing that a moment later there 

 would be no second chance. At the shot the deer at once disappeared, but I felt sure I had 

 hit him, and, on following the tracks for some fifty yards, there he lay as dead as a door-nail. 

 Weight, V.i stone 6 lbs.; a wild head of ten points; thin, and evidently that of a deer on 

 the decline." 



In England the wild red deer are hunted with stag-hounds on Exmoor, and first-rate sport 

 is obtained on the great moorlands of Somerset and Devon. During the last fifty years the 

 deer have much increased in numbers, and no less than three packs — the Devon and 

 Somerset, Sir John Heathcoat-Amory's, and i\lr. Peter Ormrod's — are now engaged in hunting 



l'ltol,j hi/ Mr. ir. Jtau] 



[Ph itiulelpli la. 



A.MEKICA.N' WAPITI. 

 The lUik bead, fove-qiiarters, and iindei-partf?, so distinctive of tliu wapiti, are lieie well di.*lilayed. 



