rule, are given to the foresters who find them, as a perquisite; and therefore it may be taken for granted they are well looked after; or their scarcity may be partly due to the fact of their being eaten by the deer themselves after being shed! This, to a certain extent at least, seems certainly to be the case. It has been said of the Highland sports of deer-stalking and grouse-shooting, that as they never can be made to ‘pay’ in a commercial sense, so they never can be vulgarised. The deer-forests in particular are sure to remain select; it is only men who have an annual income of many thousands who can afford to indulge themselves in the ‘pastime of princes.’ As regards the produce of these vast areas of ground—the venison—it can hardly be said to have a marketable value. To produce a haunch at table on the occasion of a dinner-party is with some persons a matter of ambition; but table venison, except in Highland shooting-lodges and hotels, is generally obtained from park-bred fallow-deer, especially fed for the purpose, and which in its season commands a very high price. Red-deer venison—that is, a haunch from a Highland hart or hind—can only be assigned a secondary place in the cuisine. Happily, some sportsmen have discovered that venison does not require to be kept till it has begun to decay before it can be brought to table, but can be used to the greatest advantage in the space of two or three days after being killed, when its flavour is excellent and the flesh presumably nutritious. The deer can also be cut into chops, such cuts being delicious. Among sportsmen who thus utilise their venison we may be allowed to name the father of them all—Horatio Ross. There is, however, some probability that the Scottish red-deer may yet cut a better figure at table than it has ever done, and pains are being taken, we understand, to fortify the various breeds. The deer is a rather local animal, and therefore there must be in the various herds a certain amount of in-breeding; and to counteract the deterioration which must result from such a circumstance, Sutherland stags were some time ago placed in the forests of Ross and Cromarty with gratifying results; the Queen, it was some time ago stated, had forwarded some red-deer from Windsor to be crossed with the deer of the Duke of Portland in the county of Caithness; and various gentlemen well known in the deer-forest world of the Highlands have recently followed these examples. It is to be hoped we may learn in time how these experiments have succeeded.