RED DEER HUNTING IN GALICIAN 
FORESTS 
T HE more a man hunts wild animals the more he finds how 
variable is the difficulty or ease of success according to the 
nature of their surroundings. A creature that has the reputation 
of extreme shyness and difficulty of approach may be rendered 
a comparatively easy victim if forced into a habitat that is not 
chosen by itself and where most of its clever tricks and artifices 
to preserve life are nullified to such an extent that its pursuer finds its 
capture easy. Let us take the case of the red stag, for instance, and see 
how it is hunted in Europe. I began by stalking red deer for five seasons 
in the Forest of the Black Mount, by far the finest as well as the most 
“ difficult ” forest in Scotland, and can say with truth that during that 
time I only once obtained an easy shot. In the great open and shaly corries 
of this part of Argyllshire it is possible for a hunter, accompanied by the 
best stalkers in the north, to see large numbers of deer every day and not 
fire a shot for a week. By no possibility can a chance be obtained or an 
approach made nearer than 300 yards on some of the beats when the 
wind is in the north, and when you do get a chance it is sure to be a long 
shot and most likely a quick one. Now this is very high-class, open-ground 
stalking, and the way it should be. Since those days I have killed numbers 
of Scottish stags in many forests of Scotland, and have generally found 
them far too easy to kill, and now I find that every year the sport is be- 
coming easier and more luxurious and more surely robbed of its finer 
points. In the western islands deer stalking has little more difficulty 
than shooting stags in a park, for I once killed seven stags in two days 
in North Harris after such easy and certain stalks that one felt almost 
ashamed to shoot the poor beasts ; for I could easily have shot double the 
number had my kind host allowed me to do so. In Germany most of the 
grand heads seen in the annual exhibitions are killed under circumstances 
which can only be called the outcome of wealth and careful nursing. Such 
methods seem ridiculous in the eyes of true sportsmen. Even in Austria 
several of the forests where the best heads are obtained are “ shot ” from car- 
riages. The guest is driven in a vehicle along tracks through the forests. 
From his high seat the forester points out the stag, which is quite accustomed 
to the sight of carts, etc., to the shooter, who stands up and obtains an easy 
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