HIGH LEAPS BY DEER.

  Mr. Gordon Boles, a sportsman who has hunted all over the world,has recorded some remarkable leaps taken by deer when pursued. Hisobservations have been chiefly in his native district, Exmoor, the landof "Lorna Doone," in India, and in Northwestern Canada. Uncontrollablefear and partial blindness caused by long pursuit, he gives as reasonsfor deer taking leaps which usually end in death. Once, while huntingwith the Devon and Somerset stag hounds, he saw a hind leap 300feet from a cliff to the seashore. She was dashed to pieces. In theexcitement of the chase one of the hounds followed her.

  On another occasion a stag made a bold burst for the open, goingstraight for the sea. He came to the edge of a cliff, some hundreds offeet above the beach, and then dashed restlessly backward and forward,as if seeking a path to descend.

  He either missed his footing or jumped, and when the hunters came uphe was seen below, a shattered mass, with the horns broken into smallpieces. Mr. Boles is inclined to think that the stag committed suicidedeliberately.

  Another deer, which made the leap at about the same place, landedsafely and swam out to sea. Men pursued him in a boat and killed him.

  In India Mr. Boles wounded a sambur, which resembles somewhat thecommon deer. The sambur showed fight on a narrow path overhanging aprecipice. Mr. Boles fired again, but in his excitement aimed too low,the ball passing beneath the deer and striking the ground just back ofhis hind legs. The deer turned and deliberately leaped over the height.

  A fine buck he wounded in Northwestern Canada, when pursued by the dog,jumped from a height of 100 feet into a shallow stream and broke hisneck.

 
Stanley R. Matthews's Novels