Part 25

DEER.

The elegant animals included under the name of Deer, afford the highest sport to the hunter, the most precious skins, and delicious food. Considering their size, they are matchless in speed and vigour, and are as beautiful as they are swift. They are spread all over the globe, except Australia, and Central and Southern Africa; their place in the latter continent being supplied by giraffes and antelopes. They leave the higher mountains to goats, live on moderate elevations, but delight most in wide, open countries. The fissures, or what are called lachrymals, exist in most of them; they are clefts below the eyes, which bear the name of tear-ducts, but their use is not yet understood. They would not be so much developed as they are in many, unless they bore strongly upon the animal's economy; but they do not communicate with the nose, nor are they, in any way, connected with respiration. They are certainly in relation with glands, because they secrete a greasy fluid, more abundant at some times than at others, when the edges are much swollen; and the animals often touch objects with them, stretching them wide open, doing so, when they are under excitement of any kind.

The muzzles of some deer are nearly flat, and destitute of hair; in others, they are covered with hair, and the upper lip is prehensile.

Only the male deer have horns, or antlers, as they are called, which they shed every year; and, up to a certain age, at every renewal, they increase in size and number of branches. They are placed on a bony pad upon the forehead, which is covered with skin; and in the second year of their age, this skin swells; blood rushes towards the pads, their arteries increase, and rapidly deposit bony matter, the antlers begin to form, the skin increases with them, and continues to cover them, and the large arteries which it carries with it make furrows upon the bony matter, which always remain. So thick and soft is the pile of hair which protects the skin, that it deserves, and has received, the name of velvet. When the antlers have attained their yearly size, the arteries begin to deposit a rough ring of bone round the edges of the pad, which increases till it stops their passage; so that, deprived of its natural nourishment, the velvet shrivels up, dries, and peels off; a process which the deer hastens by rubbing his antlers against trees. The latter are then hard and serviceable, for had they been used and wounded, when their covering was so full of blood, the shock would have sent a rush of it back to the brain, and probably have killed the deer. Before I understood this arrangement, I have seen these animals with wounded horns, and have wondered much at the large flow of blood which issued from them, and others have probably done the same. When the skin is gone, the antlers remain, as it were mechanically, and as it is one of the great laws of life to throw off every thing which is no longer a part of itself, they obey the rule. Absorption takes place beneath the bony ring, particle after particle disappears, and down go the antlers, either from their own weight, or some accidental touch; the part where they stood is quickly covered with skin till spring returns, when a new growth commences, and a larger pair ensues. The common stag loses his antlers early in the spring; and they sprout forth again very soon after.

There is no part of the game laws of various countries more stringent, than that which relates to the killing of deer, or their management. Whatever concerned Venerie, as it was called, was a necessary part of a nobleman's or gentleman's education. The private histories of kings are very much mixed up with the deer laws, and also some of the public transactions; for many a fine has been paid, many a worthy person sent into exile, and many a life lost, in consequence of their infringement; and the technicalities with which the science and the laws were loaded, appear in the present times most absurd and tiresome.

Deer are still to be found wild in Scotland, but most rarely in England; in the north of Europe and America they are common, and those which frequent cold countries have the antlers much flattened, as if to shovel away the snow; they will sometimes weigh 60 lbs. These animals are every where tenacious of life, and will run a long way after being hit in a mortal part.

Rein-deer, which form the wealth of the Laplanders, serve them for food and clothing, draw them over pathless fields of snow in safety, and are the only species really domesticated. They eat a lichen which they find under the snow, during the winter, and live together in large herds. They are the least handsome of the whole tribe; are perfectly obedient, and one man sometimes possesses as many as two thousand. Their joints crack as they move, and they are extremely fond of salt; even taking it from the hands of strangers. They usually run at the rate of ten English miles the hour, but have gone nineteen, and draw a weight of 300 lbs; but they require good driving, and sometimes dash on, perfectly regardless of the comfort of those in the sledge. Their smell is very acute; and by it they are enabled to come up with their party, if they should have been left behind. They suffer intensely from insects, especially from a large species (oestrus tarandi), which deposits its eggs in the hole made by its bite. In order to avoid these pests, the rein-deer are driven during the summer months to the mountains which overhang the coasts, where their foes are much less numerous. They are so terrified at their approach, that the sight of one will make them furious.

Mr. Wentzel says that the Dog-rib Indians go in pairs to kill rein-deer, the foremost carrying in one hand the horns and part of the skin of a head of the deer, and in the other, a small bundle of twigs, against which he, from time to time, rubs the horns, as the deers do. His companion follows exactly in his footsteps, holding the guns of both in a horizontal position; so that the muzzle of each projects under the arm of the first. Both have a fillet of white skin round their foreheads, and the foremost a strip of the same round each wrist. They gradually approach the herd, raise their legs very slowly, and put them down again suddenly, in the manner of deer.

If any of the herd see them, they stop, and the head is made to play its part by copying their movements. By these means the hunters get into the very centre of the herd without exciting suspicion; the hindmost man then pushes forward his comrade's gun, and both fire nearly at the same instant. The deer scamper off, the hunters trot after them; the poor animals soon halt to see what alarmed them; their enemies have reloaded their guns as they proceeded, and give them a second discharge. The consternation of the deer increases, they run about in the utmost confusion, and the greater number are frequently thus destroyed.

I have already spoken of dogs which attach themselves to communities, and now I have a similar instance of a deer to offer, in combination, however, with a dog, who attached himself to the 42nd Highlanders, having been presented to that regiment by a friend of one of the officers. The dog had belonged to a captain in the navy, who dined at the mess, while the regiment was stationed in Malta, and so attached himself to that community, that nothing would induce him to leave it; so his master was forced to leave his favourite Newfoundland behind him; who, from that moment, would never follow any one who did not wear the uniform of his friends. The soldiers subscribed, and gave him a collar with the name of the regiment on it, and called him Peter. A mutual attachment soon took place between the deer and the dog; and they regularly appeared on parade together. The latter frequented the cook-house, where the cook ill-treated him, which was not forgotten, and one day when the bathing time was come, at which recreation Peter was the first in and the last out of the water; the cook joined the others of his corps; and Peter, knowing his power in his own element, pulled him down, and would have drowned him, had not the soldiers come to his rescue.

Both dog and deer marched with the band, and remained with it when in quarters. The latter was very fond of biscuit; but if it had been breathed upon he would not touch it, and although many ways of cheating him were tried, he invariably detected the contamination. At one time he became very irritable; and if a stranger passed between the band and the main body of the regiment, he attacked him with his antlers. He was grazing one day when a cat from the neighbourhood bristled up her hair, and set up her back at him; and the poor deer, seized with a sudden and unaccountable panic, sprang over a precipice two hundred feet high, and was killed on the spot. Peter being close by, rushed to the battlements, and barked and yelled most piteously. His own end was a tragic one; he snarled at an officer who had often ill-used him, and the unfeeling man ordered the poor dog to be shot by those who loved him, and lamented him as long as they lived.

The smallest of the deer species lives in Ceylon; a lovely, delicate little creature, with lustrous eyes, and of exquisite form. When full grown it is only ten inches high, fourteen long, and weighs about five pounds. Its throat, head, and neck, are all white; its body is grey, striped with black, and spotted at equal distances with yellow. Although very timid, it is to be tamed; but if angry, it kicks out its little hind legs, and slender pointed hoofs, with great violence. One which was domesticated was placed on a dinner-table, where it ran about and nibbled fruit from the dishes; answered to its name, and returned the caresses which were bestowed upon it. Its terror of dogs was at first very great; but at last it allowed a small terrier to come close to it; and heard the bark of others without being uneasy. A pair were brought to England, but soon died from inflammation of the lungs; the common and fatal disease which attacks almost all tropical animals in this climate.

GIRAFFES.

Some years ago, giraffes were thought to be fabulous animals; and the ill-treated Le Vaillant was supposed to have invented them, in spite of the description which the Romans left of them. He was a little poetical in his style of writing, which John Bull is not fond of when facts are narrated, so John Bull begged to doubt his assertions. He lived, however, to see his veracity established, which the kind old man, a year or two before his death, assured me was a great happiness to him. Lord Caledon brought a skin home from the Cape, and badly as it was stuffed, it began to dawn on the minds of the Europeans, that such an animal really existed. Then a live one was brought to Paris, and another to His Majesty George the Fourth, who petted his till it died. Now there are several living in our Zoological Gardens; some of whom were born in the Menagerie.

The great peculiarity of the giraffes lies in possessing a very short body, and very long legs; which formation involves a multitude of awkward movements; for instance, when they walk fast there is a jerking in the pace, as if it were not easy to them; and when they gallop, the hind feet often project beyond the fore feet. Their very long neck is not arched, but bends obliquely from the shoulders, so that when they wish to drink from the ground, they are obliged to hold their fore legs very widely apart. They look best when going slowly, at which time their step is very stately, and their beautiful head is borne loftily above other animals; they have two short, bony horns covered with skin, and a prominence of bone on the top of the forehead; they have large, full eyes, with which, owing to their convex form, they can see immense distances in all directions; their ears are long and flexible, and they have a long, black, prehensile tongue; with this they drag down the branches of the trees on which they browse. Their upper lip is very flexible and projects over the under, which greatly assists them in procuring their food; their tail is long, and has a tuft at the end; their skin is very glossy, is covered with large angular spots, and is often an inch and a half thick. Their great enemy is the lion, who springs upon them when they are drinking, and the affrighted giraffes start with all the speed of a swift courser, their enemy on their back, nor stop till they fall from exhaustion or loss of blood. They were never heard to utter a sound, and therefore are supposed to be perfectly mute, even when wild.

I was living in Paris when the giraffe, sent to that country, arrived. She and her keeper, Ati, landed at Bordeaux, amidst most enthusiastic acclamations, which accompanied them all the way to the metropolis. A deputation from each large town through which she passed, formed of the municipal authorities, met her, and one of the most learned savants, went all the way from the Jardin des Plantes, and accompanied her on her triumphal march. "La giraffe," however, did not appreciate these honours, and she was often impatient under the etiquette imposed on her. On one occasion she broke loose from her cavalcade, Ati and all, and dashing among the horsemen, scattered them right and left, some on and some off their steeds; a dignified mayor lay in the dust, and by his side rolled the pains-taking savant who performed so long a journey in her service. The enthusiasm did not abate when she reached her destination. Thirteen thousand more than the usual weekly number passed over the Pont d'Austerlitz alone, and as the public curiosity did but increase for six weeks, steps were obliged to be taken to prevent the multitude from pressing upon her. There were several natives of the East at that time in the French capital; and they went among others to see her. The moment she beheld their turbans, she stretched her neck out and licked their foreheads, no doubt recognizing their head-dresses. Her love for roses was very great; and she eagerly snatched them from those who carried or wore them, to their great astonishment; for few could calculate on the distance which she could reach. I went one day into her park, holding some carrots in my hand, with some of which I fed her, then turning to the cows, lying at some distance, who had come with her to afford a supply of milk for her on the voyage, I began to give some to them. Without moving her legs from the place where I had left her, she stretched her long neck and head over my head, and hooking the carrots up with her tongue, surprised me not a little, for I could not tell what shadow was coming over me. She was as fond of onions as of carrots; and this is not surprising, for they are very sweet and mild in her native country. Her Darfur attendant, Ati, slept in a gallery at the top of her stables, and there was very little repose for him after daylight; she routed him up with her nose, and seemed to think because she was stirring he ought also to be on the alert. This was rather against his ideas on the subject, as he was apt to stay out late at the dances in the neighbouring guinguettes; and he used to complain, all the time loving her very dearly.

ANTELOPES.

The many characters which antelopes possess in common with deer, seem to place them together; but naturalists have ranked them among those Ruminantia who have hollow horns. They are some of the most beautiful animals in the world, and are sub-divided into sections, which depend on the shape of their horns, but into which classification the present work does not enter. The exquisite Gazelle, the type of Eastern beauty, the poet's theme, with her slight and graceful shape, her slender limbs, and her full, dark eyes, often meets with a fate which has no poetry in it; for she is the favourite morsel of the lion and the leopard. It might have been thought, that they would have preferred larger and more fleshy game, but, like true epicures, the high flavour of the gazelle is preferred to size. The falcon is often used by men for catching them, as even the swift greyhound cannot overtake them; they are also driven into traps, by surrounding them, in the manner of a battle. Their skin is used in making a peculiar sort of drum.

The pigmy antelope inhabits some parts of Africa, and, in size, corresponds with the small deer of Ceylon. I never saw so beautiful a little creature, appearing more like a fable than a reality. Their tiny black horns are but slightly curved inwards, their legs are not thicker than the quill with which I am now writing; and yet all the characters of the antelope are strongly marked. The first I saw had been brought to my uncle; and as I entered his room, I stood quite still at the door, with surprise at this exquisite, tiny creature, who remained with one leg up, ready to dart away with the speed of lightning from the intruder, for whose approach he was listening. I feared to move, lest the vision should disappear; but death soon made it fade away altogether. Captain Fisher, of the Navy, tried to take a pair of these fairy-like creatures to England; they were kept in his own cabin, he gave them all the goat's milk which had been provided for his own use, and took infinite pains to shelter them from cold or accident; he succeeded in getting them as far as the Channel, where they ate some pieces of cork which had been dropped on the floor, and died. I was equally unfortunate with a beautiful, spotted antelope, which was brought to me; and which never could stand in the house. It had not been hurt; but the instant it was put upon its legs, it slipped about, and I was told this species always did so. I fed it, carried it about, and it was very gentle, and began to know me, though still wild. It died at the end of a fortnight, in strong convulsions.

Antelopes are exclusively inhabitants of the Old World; and some idea may be formed of their immense numbers in South Africa, where the species are most varied and powerful, by reading the following quotations from Mr. Pringle, and Mr. Gordon Cumming. The former says—"We pursued our journey over extensive plains, still parched by severe drought, and undulating heights clothed with a brown and scanty herbage, and sprinkled over with numerous herds of springbok. Near the banks of the Little Fish river, so numerous were those herds, that they literally speckled the face of the country, as far as the eye could reach; insomuch that we calculated we had sometimes within view not less than 20,000 of these beautiful animals. As we galloped on, they bounded off continually, on either side, with the velocity from which they derive their colonial appellation. They were probably part of one of the great migratory swarms which, after long-continued droughts, sometimes inundate the colony from the Northern wastes."

Mr. Cumming informs us, that, "When pursued, the springbok jumps up into the air ten or twelve feet, for which they curve their loins, rise perpendicularly, and the long white hair on their haunches and back floats about; they pass over a space of twelve to fifteen feet, come down, then rise again; and after doing this several times, they bound off, arch their necks, then halt, and face their enemy. If they come to a place over which men or lions have walked, they jump across it. They can only be compared to locusts; for they eat up every green thing, and always return to their haunts by a different road to that which they had previously passed. Their herds consist of tens of thousands; and where they have staid for some time, thousands of skulls strew the plain." In another part of his book, the same author tells us, that the ground was literally covered with them, forming a dense, living mass, marching slowly, and pouring like a great river for hours: hundreds of thousands scarcely tell their number. "I give you my word," said a boer, "that I have ridden a long day's journey, over a succession of flats covered with them as far as I could see, as thick as sheep standing in a fold."