THE DEER OF ASIA 
or weight among European stags are sufficiently explained by con- 
ditions of life and lapse of time.” 
Mr E. N. Buxton, again, in “ Short Stalks,” writes: “ There is no fixed 
line of demarcation to the west of which the deer can be described as red 
deer and to the east of which as belonging to some larger race.” 
The Persian stag is the most easterly of what, broadly speaking, may be 
called western deer, its range extending to the verge of the Turkoman 
Desert, which makes a complete break of 350 miles when the fringe of 
the Central Asiatic stag country begins on the banks of the Amu Daria 
above Balkh. 
The differences between the large wapiti -like deer of this region and 
the western form of red deer originated at a period when Europe and 
Asia were separated by a sea, which, at the Pliocene period, occupied 
the present deserts of Persia, Tur comania and the Kirghiz steppes, thus 
connecting the latter with the Indian Ocean. 
I have attempted to show that while the red deer found on the borders 
of Asia have much in common with the western C. elaphus , having pro- 
bably descended from the same stock, physical boundaries have separated 
them from the larger forms of Asiatic deer distributed through the great 
mountain regions of the interior. Much with regard to these latter, as I 
have already said, remains to be learned, and the intelligent observations 
of future travellers and sportsmen will go far towards clearing the mists 
which at present enshroud them. 
My endeavour in the following pages is to make clear what is already 
known. 
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