"THE MONARCH OF THE GLEN."
THE last volume of the Far and Feather Series" would have gained by compression. Its two main subjects, stalking the red-deer of the Highlands and hunting on Exmoor, are well and fully set out by Cameron of Lochiel and Lord Ebrington. The "natural history" of the animal is neces- sarily covered in great part by these chapters, and hardly needed the discursive chat devoted to it by the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, who, however, has something new to say about an ancient race of wild deer still existing on Martindale Fell, in Westmoreland. In the thirty-five pages devoted to the "Cookery of Venison," by Mr. Innes Shand, all that is to the point could have been said in three, and he omits to mention the months at which the venison of buck and doe, hind and stag, respectively, are in season. Venison has almost ceased to appear at private dinner-tables ; but those who care to revive a good custom will avoid disappointments by buying red and fallow venison (stag and buck) only between June and the end of September. Hind venison comes into season again in December, but is not recommended. Fallow venison is then again in season until the end of February. Russian venison, and that of red stags killed when " roar- ing " for the sake of their antlers, appear in October and even in November, and horrible stuff it is.
The writer of the chapters on deer forests and the art of stalk- ing, has the difficult task of following the late Lord Lovat, who contributed to the "Badminton Series" an admirable essay covering the same ground. But Cameron of Lochiel also, writes as a Highland proprietor, from long and personal' experience of stalking, of the Highlands, and of the manage- ment of forests. Both books will attract both deer-stalkers and those who take an interest in this fascinating sport, and the comparison of the experiences of two good authorities may lead to conclusions which the perusal of one alone would not have suggested.
One, perhaps the most important, factor in Highland sport is not discussed. The continued wildness of deer in the Scotch forests is not accounted for. Their numbers are much greater than formerly. New forests are made every year, and the deer are protected from poachers, not worried by collies or sheep-dogs, and occasionally crossed with English park stags to gain weight, or for change of blood. Yet they are as wary as ever and as difficult to stalk. This is partly due to the move- ment of stags from forest to forest, which takes place in the breeding season, and makes the habits of the deer less deter- mined by locality than those of many wild:animals. Fencing a forest is fatal to the stock, which degenerates from lack of fresh blood. But the persistency of the caution and fear in- herited through generations by these animals can only be explained by the fact that their worst enemy, man, still con- tinues to kill them. Driving deer has been discontinued in most forests, not because it makes them too wild to be approached, but because it drives them off the ground; and the use of Scotch deerhounds, which coursed by sight, and brought to bay the wounded stag, is discountenanced. The collie-dog has taken its place as an aid in recovering wounded deer ; and, as might be expected, it is a valuable ally, though a poor substitute for the deerhound from the picturesque point of view. "The deerhounds are so kigh conraged that it is not possible to submit them to any course of training." Two dogs were necessary; the second being a "tracker," to find the deerhound and the deer which he had brought to bay or killed. Readers of Charles St. John's adventures with the deerhounds Bran' and ' Oscar ' will remember the contempt which he had for the collie in natters connected with deer. But this is his character as painted by Cameron of Lochiel:—"Nothing beats a collie for general use on the hill. He is possessed of instinct—one may gall it sense—in a higher degree than any other breed, and is more tractable. He will run by sight or by scent, loose or Upon a cord ; he will keep close to his master, requiring no gdlie to lead him. He can be taught to lie down, and will even learn to crawl when necessary, at any rate his motions are those of an animal trying to approach his prey
• Red Deer. By Various Authors. "Far and Feather Series." London : LOrtgmans and Co.
unobserved." The collie also shares with all good retrievers the power of distinguishing the scent of a wounded from an unwounded animal. The displacement of the strong and swift deerhound for this special work by the less well- equipped collie is a striking instance of the practibal recogni- tion of the force of acquired capacity—we do not say of acquired habits—in different breeds of the same species.
Lord Ebrington's chapters on hunting the red.deer deal mainly with the sport on Exmoor and the Quantocks, which country he hunted for six seasons as Master of the North Devon Staghonnds. The beautiful sylvan stag-hunting in the New Forest, where wild red-deer, as well as fallow, are occa- sionally hunted, is not described ; but Lord Ebrington's personal recollections of the sport in North Devon and Somerset are interesting, and his notes on the history of the sport and its present practice abroad have the merit of practical handling. It will be news to most readers to learn that in France there are more than three hundred packs of hounds—nearly as many as in England and Wales—of which twenty-two hunt wild stags only, and thirty-eight stags and other large game, such as wolves, boars, and roe. Nearly all these packs hunt in the great forests, where the quarry is scarcely ever in sight, and relays of hounds, piqueurs, and French horns as signals are necessary elements in the sport. On Exmoor the country is different, —almost perfect, in fact, for the enjoyment of stag-hunting, for there are large covers to hold the deer, and wild wastes to hunt him over. On the other hand, the chance of escape for the deer when once roused and freed from the cover is small, and the sport, however well managed, has more than the usual concomitants of cruelty. But it is more picturesque, whether pursued in the New Forest or on Exmoor, than any other form of sport. This is partly due to the deliberation with which its earlier stages are conducted. In fox-hunting "a fox is a fox," and the hounds are all thrown into cover at once, and if they find, hounds and field are often a mile away in a few minutes. In stag-hunting it is not any deer, but a particular deer—a warrantable stag—that must be found and separated from the rest before being hunted, and the ex- perience of centuries has shown that ke must be found by a harbourer, who tracks him to his resting-place for the day very early in the morning, and must be driven from this, and separated from other deer in the same cover by a few hounds, known as tufters. Meantime the pack are kept waiting by the whips at some convenient place, to be laid on to the deer's line later, and are often held in "couples," making a beautiful group of straining, eager hounds and excited horses. The work of all three factors in the sport, harbourer, tufters, and hounds, is very hard. The harbourer on Exmoor rides out at daybreak, and tracks his deer without the aid of a hound, though one of the men always declared that his mare could wind a deer, and let him know by her manner when she did so. In the New Forest, the harbourer, usually the keeper on the particular "walk" where the meet is, will ride in with the huntsman and one or two old hounds, and point with his whip to the exact spot where the deer is lying. On Exmoor, in the big woods, the tufters are usually put on to the trail where the deer entered, and drive him out as they can. The stag knows the danger, and pushes up every other deer in the cover, if he can, to divert the attention of the hounds. Lord Ebrington notes that "deer thus disturbed sometimes resent the intrusion. I saw a stag thus interfered with turn and fight the hunted deer, and they continued fighting entil the hounds ran right up to them." When the pack is laid OD, the stag usually keeps to certain well-known and favourite paths, just as in the New Forest nearly every stag roused near Malwood passes by Rufus's stone ; and where the meet is near the sea, especially on the Quantocks, it usually makes at last for the beach, and often swims out into the Channel. In August, 1884, a stag jumped over the &lift, a drop of between sixty and eighty feet, and five honnds followed him. The stag and one hound were killed, and two other hounds broke their limbs. In September, 1881, a stag went to by on the brow of a cliff in a gale, and was driven over ; two hounds followed, and neither they nor the stag were ever seen again. It is alleged that deer have been known to swim across the Bristol Channel to Glamerganshire. One, a bind, was picked up by a collier and claimed at the port of entry by the Receiver of Wrecks, who returned her to Mr. Bisset, the then Master. The incidental cruelty of this sport on Exmoor both for deer and hounds is suggested by the following remarks of Lord Ebrington's :—" A staghound's career is not a long one. The season generally lasts fully eight months. The work is hard, and the water-hunting in winter very trying. Lord Graves said that the pack should never run after the end of October; you otherwise lose your best hounds by the chill of the water, which occasions violent convulsions and terminates the life of the poor animal almost imme- diately." But winter hunting goes on in order to "kill off the hinds." These hinds have calves, six months' old in December, and the calves probably die after the hind has been killed in this arduous winter hunting. The double suffering involved is unnecessary, for the surplus hinds could be shot at another season. The same remark applies to the winter shooting of hinds with calves on the Scotch forests. Lastly, the Exmoor stag has very little chance of escape. The present average is sixty deer to eighty days' hunting. In 1867 not a stag escaped. In 1886, though some hinds were lost, the pack did not lose a stag during the season. Mr. Thorburn, who illustrates the greater part of this book, is now making a reputation which may in time equal that of Mr. J. S. Wolf; the picture of" Moonlighters," a stag and MO looking from the edge of the moorland, over a field of corn in shock in bright moonlight is perfect of its kind. But we doubt if the sportsman who shot the deer (p. 148) would have done so if he had worn such a very white collar.
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