associate with his style. His first three chapters are, for
the most part, a description of Exmoor scenery, as the writer saw it himself at midsummer. He tells how he traversed the moor, with what delight he came to the hollows with which now and then a stream intersects it ; how keenly he scanned the country for its wild in- habitants ; how these bore themselves when he approached them.
All this is given with admirable force. Then we get a number of interesting details. Mr. Jefferies does not believe that the stage destroy or purposely hide their cast-off horns ; but he confirms the common belief that they are seldom found. In faot, hardly one in ten of those that must be yearly shed turns up ; and this though they are valuable enough to be very diligently searched for. Such as are found are commonly single, and have
to be put, we are told, for the most part into hinds' heads. On the other hand, the common belief that the hart's horn is a poisoned weapon is dissipated. Dogs certainly recover from its wounds with marvellous rapidity ; and men do not suffer if they are healthy. Stag-hunting as a sport seems to be popular, and, if our author is right, to be humanising in its general effect. At all events, Exmoor folk are exceptionally courteous and sociable. One is a little staggered, however, when we read of how the hind, when she is started by the hounds, will, if she is followed by a calf, knock the little creature into a bush to save it from them. "The calf will lie
perfectly still, and the hounds go past after the mother." Probably the human hunters are seldom near enough to see this done ; but he who could see it and follow the mother to her death must be hard- hearted. Hinds, it is interesting to learn, run longer than stags, a fact partially accounted for by the consideration that they are hunted
in cold weather. They are also far more crafty. A stag runs straight ; a hind doubles, and uses many devices to elude its pursuers. With one question we will conclude our notice of a charming book. If deer are never shot, why are they so afraid of the gun P Is it an instinct inherited from the old poaching times, which will become
obliterated as years go on ?
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