AN ENGLISH DEER-PARK. 301 
logical grounds it would seem quite possible that in 
their original state the English deer did move from part 
to part of the country with the seasons. Almost all the 
birds, the only really free things in this country now, 
move, even those that do not quit the island; and why 
not the deer in the old time when all the woods were 
open to them? England is not a large country, but 
there are considerable differences in the climate and the 
time at which vegetation appears, quite sufficient of 
themselves to induce animals to move from place to 
place. We have no narrowing buffalo zone to lament, 
for our buffalo zone disappeared long ago. These parks 
and woods are islets of the olden time, dotted here and 
there in the midst of the most modern agricultura! 
scenery. These deer and their ancestors have been 
confined within the pale for hundreds of years, and 
though in a sense free, they are in no sense wild. But 
the old power remains still. See the buck as he starts 
away, and jumps at every leap as high as the fern. He 
would give the hounds a long chase yet. 
The fern is fully four feet tall, hiding a boy entirely, 
and only showing a man’s head. The deer do not go 
through it unless startled ; they prefer to follow a track 
already made, one of their own trails. It is their natural 
cover, and when the buckhounds meet near London the 
buck often takes refuge in one or other of the fern-grown 
commons of which there are many on the southern side. 
But fern is inimical to grass, and, while it gives them 
-cover, occupies the place of much more pleasant herbage. 
As their range is limited, though they have here a 
forest of some extent as well as the park to roam over, 
they cannot always obtain enough in winter. In frost, 
when the grass will not grow, or when snow is on the 
ground, that which they can find is supplemented with 
