I20 



The Irish Naturalist, 



May, 1905. 



The last wild Red Deer, Co. Donegal. 



Some years ago, while we were looking across a wild stretch of country 

 towards the Lough Salt mountains in N.W. Donegal, Mr. W. F. de 

 Vismes Kane told me the following history. I had forgotten thedetails> 

 but hearing lately that it would be of interest, I wrote to Mr. Kane, and 

 he writes me as follows from Nice, S. France: — 



** It must have been about the year 1862 that I was salmon fishing 

 in the Lackagh, and Mr. Stewart's (of Ards) water keeper, Kdward 

 Gallagher (if I do not mistake a name that was once familiar to 

 me) attended me. The salmon were then more keen at taking the fly 

 than they became afterwards, and he was a sure hand with the gaff. He 

 had a very old bedridden father — he might have been 90 years old from 

 his looks— who told many stories about that part of the country. He 

 said his father, a very old man, told him that when he first came to those 

 parts the country was ver)' sparsely inhabited, and to see any of his 

 neighbours he had to travel over the hills and bogs seven to ten miles. 

 The Lackagh was then so full of salmon that it was easy to gaff as many 

 as one wanted, in the season, and the rocky banks (" Lack "agli) were full 

 of wild cats, who fed on the fish killed by the otters, and left with only 

 a bite or two taken out of them. Also that there were still plenty of 

 deer in the mountains still surviving, and that very occasionally word 

 was sent round that part of Donegal to appoint a da}' and have an 

 organised hunt. Certain passes were known and appointed toward 

 which the whole available beaters drove the deer : and a palisade on 

 each side was repaired, which narrowed little by little as it approached a 

 bog. Here right across the mouth of the palisaded route was dug a very 

 deep trench in the bog, at the bottom of which were upright 

 sharp stakes, and all this was lightly covered with heather. This 

 story carries one back I should say to the beginning of the i8th century. 



"The manner in which the last deer was killed is as follows, and 

 happened quite in the old man's lifetime, if I recollect aright. 



*' There was a single surviving stag frequenting Glenveigh. Many times 

 he was hunted, but never could be shot. It was observed that whenever 

 the chase took a certain direction he evaded his pursuers, and those 

 lying in wait, by making for a path which crossed the precipitous face 

 of a mountain (probably one of those on the far side of the lake from 

 the present castle). This path at one place was broken off, and the stag 

 jumped the gap, and followed the track on the other side. On one 

 occasion an old woman, hearing the shouting, concluded that the 

 quarry was once again trying this method of escape. She was on the 

 far side of the gap, and so taking off her red petticoat, she placed it on 

 the stone on the edge where the deer would alight when he took his 

 usual leap. The animal, coming to the off-take, swerved in his jump to 

 avoid the unwonted and surprising coloured garment. He slipped on 

 alighting, and could not retrieve his footing, but fell down and was 

 killed." 



R. Wlil^CH. 



Belfast. 



