THE FOREST 
165 
boughs in their full beauty, whilst there is an undergrowth of the 
same tree to afford fine shelter for wild animals, and where the 
great stags lie during the heat of the mid-day sun in summer. 
Firs seem to be always thickly planted, and afford shelter and 
warmth in the winter for the pig. The other trees to be met 
with are principally oak and birch. There are open spaces of 
considerable e.xtent covered with coarse grass, and many roads 
traverse the forest, some metalled, the others covered with turf. 
The same description applies to the forests near Cassel, but 
these are not enclosed, and the only four-footed game that 1 
have met in them are roe-buck and hares. Of ferns we particu- 
larly noticed an abundance of oak fern, and there were besides 
male fern, lady fern, hard fern, and in a few places bracken. 
The weather being very hot whilst we were at the Forsthaus, 
our walks were generally taken after four o’clock, when we could 
have three or four hours before supper, and when the wild 
animals would be out on the feed ; we always came across roe- 
buck and frequently red-deer, and could have shot many of both 
had we been allowed to do so. The forester, when with us, 
used to make a whistling sound with a leaf from a beech tree 
that would attract the roebuck till they came near and could see 
or scent us, when they would scamper off. But the animals 
that interested us most were the wild pigs. I had never seen 
any of these in Europe before, and my little son and I were 
quite pleased when we saw the first one gallop past us at a dis- 
tance of only ten yards, clearing the fallen timber that lay in his 
path like an Irish hunter; we came across three or four after- 
wards at different times, but they are more shy than the deer. 
We used to watch them with glasses as they were feeding, and 
realised what must be the strength of the pig’s snout as we 
daily saw where they had been grubbing up roots, &c., and 
leaving fresh tracks for miles. 
We often stalked the red-deer, seeing how close we could get 
without being observed. One evening, the forester having won 
at a shooting match with other foresters the privilege of shoot- 
ing a stag, my son and I followed him, and after a long walk, 
during which we had only seen a red doe and her calf, we 
presently came to a place where several roads met, and treading 
softly, we saw down one of them three fine stags ; they retreated 
into the woods, and we lay down in the ditch beside another 
road where it was thought the game would come. Almost 
directly a splendid stag came out and stood by the side of the 
road, within fifty yards of us, for fully three minutes ; it was 
twilight, and we watched whilst the Forester, who was some 
paces in front of us, viewed the deer through his glasses. We 
could not make out why he did not fire when he had the rifle to 
his shoulder, but learnt afterwards that he was only allowed to 
shoot a stag with six or eight points to his horns, whereas this 
one had ten or twelve. 
A night or two after this the forester, when my son and 
