If SOI? 
wise have lain dormant, -would undoubtedly con- 
duct many others to extremities of guilt and mi- 
sery. 
The deer stealers practised some singular arts, 
and had often dangerous and surprising adventures 
in pursuing their forbidden sports. They would 
sometimes watch the pregnant hind to her lair, and 
when the calf was dropped, pare its feet to the quick, 
to prevent its escape till it became large and fat 
enough to be killed. Sometimes, a brother deer 
stealer was by moon shine mistaken for a deer, and 
shot at with a bullet. Some of those fellows once 
advancing with a dog to a place in Wolmer forest, 
where they suspected a calf to hp,ve been der 
posited, the parent hind rushed out from the brake, 
and making a vast spring with all her feet close 
together, pitched upon the neck of the dog, wh$ 
fell dead to the ground. 
In the Highlands of Scotland, there are still 
some red deer. Before the hereditary jurisdiction 
of the Highland chieftains was abolished, and 
means employed to weaken the attachment by 
which their vassals were so absolutely devoted 
to their will, thousands used to be occasionally 
assembled to hunt the deer over the wild hills 
©f the north ; the head of a clan went out t$ 
pursue his sports with a parade of attendants, as 
if he had been a mighty monarch. So late as in 
the beginning of the last century, there were red 
deer scattered over the hills of Galloway. But 
by the eagerness with which the peasants pursued 
them, they have been long since exterminated 
from that district. 
These animals afford various articles of utility 
to human life. The firm and |olid texture of the 
horns, fits them for handles to knives and other 
domestic utensils. The skin is dressed into excel- 
lent leather. The flesh, though when taken in 
- . yol , u* e e 
