RED DEER IN THE NORTH ISLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2805, 18 December 1907, Page 7 (Supplement)

RED DEER IN THE NORTH ISLAND.

STALKING IN THE WAIRARAPA.

By MALCOLM ROSS.

■{Specially lorttlaijur iht Otago Daily Time* and Witness CUnUmae, Aunaal, 1907.) ONE ot tne qualifications of the modern journalist is his ability to write on any subject under the sun, whether he knows anything about it or not, and at a moment's notice. I cannot claim to possess the qualification in

a high degree, and, therefore, when the editor of the Otago Witness asked me ror an article on deer-stalking in the .North Island, I decided, if possible, to do a little stalking. Indeed, when I remembered the honourable traditions of the Witness office, and remembered also a sad personal incapacity for drawing upon my imagination for my facts, it seemed imperative that I should stalk before I wrote. But, though it was easy enough to decide to stalk, it was not so easy to get stalking. In the North Island there is, indeed, little •opportunity, unless the would-be stalker is personally acquainted with the owners of property on which the red deer are to be found. It is true that in the Wairarapa district there is a Government sanctuary or reserve, of several thousand acres ; "but, so far, to the stalker who takes out a license, the Government reserve must remain a ten a incognita. In my dilemma

-a legal friend, who takes a keen interest in acclimatisation .generally, and deer-stalking in particular, came to me and said there was a vacancy in the party at White Rock this season, -and the owner ot tne station had very kindly consented to my rilling it. Accordmgiv, one day towards the end ot March, 1 found myself with a license, a rifle, a camera, and two pairs of blankets, sitting behind a four-in-hand brake en route from Alartinborough to the Riversdale hut, on Whne Rock Station. Incidentally, it was mentioned to me that my good fortune was partly attributable to the fact that a member of the usual party had broken ms collar-bone at polo. I made a mental note to write thanking him for having done so, and asking him to be so kind as to repeat the performance at another season.

For some miles beyond Maitinborough we drove along a good road; but, at length, we came upon a track that was scarcely the thing for a four-in-hand, and forced upon us the conclusion that the settlers in this district could not be paying •either taxes to the general Government or rates to the local body. In this, however, we were mistaken. Finally, along the top of a high leading ridge, we struck a gale; or, rather, a gale struck us, and with such fury that it frequcnth brought the four horses to a stand-still, and nearly overturned the wagonette. It took three strong men — in fairly good training — to shut one of the swing gates against the wind. Finally, there was no road at all, and we drove for some miles down a river bed. Entering this stieam we got our glimpse of the red deer. A hind and her calf stole out of the river-bed across the hillside, and disappeared into the bush. Leaving this river after a few miles, we drove up the bed of a tributary, and dumped our luggage out on the bank a hundred yards from the hut that, for the next eight days, was to be our habitation. This hut was situated in the heart of the e'eer country of White Rock Station. Later in the evening our host rode into camp, and the party of four — our Host, the Barrister, the Captain, and myself — was complete. B j rnes. the shepherd welcomed us with the news that 'c 'ad 'card the stags a'roarin' lately, and the cook greeted us with one of his perennial smiles and a joint of roast mutton fit for the gods — if the gods, by any chance, ever indulged in such a diet.

Next morning we were early astir and out on the hills. The Barrister and I crossed the Castle Stream and made for the highest point of " the Island," a portion of the run in which a considerable number of the deer find excellent shelter in the thick manuka scrub of the hillsides, or the dense beech T>ush of the valleys. We witnessed the sunrise fiom the summit of Mount Toot, and surveyed the country, but we did not see

any stag-s that were good enoug-h for the .barrister. Our iiost had gone out with the Captain on another beat across the Rough River and beyond "the Bugler," a rounded hill not rar trom the hut, on which we several times saw deer. Early in the morning we heard a shot from this direction, and on returning to camp we found the Captain with his first head — a royal. The evening stalk was unproductive of any head, ihe weather was still summei-liwc. anu though the rutting was on it was irregular, and the biggest stags remained hidden away in their hilly tasuiesses. Many ot the hinds had still their fawns at foot, and others had unij young stags in attendance. We could have shot several ten-pointers, but the etiquette of the party at Rnersdaie is not to shoot anything with less than eleven or twelve points. A novice ma\ shoot one tenpointer; but afier that he must go for nobiei game. Our Most, himself, will shoot at nothing less than a royal. i nis unwritten law is a very excellent one, as it gives the stags a chance to mature. For the next day or two we went out in couples, stalking together tor an hour or so, and then each one taking his own beat. The Barrister got a good eleven-pointer, and the Captain got another royal. One morning I went with the Barrister across "the Island to the summit of Mount Toot, and there we separated, he going" on to the Poly Stream and I working back across "the Island" in the direction ot our hut. In the gloom of the valley below me I could hear the stags roaring. As I climbed down, a covey of little brown quail, quite different from the Calif ornian quail, started up from the fern at my feet, and whirred across a deep corrie into the scrub on an adjoining ridge. In «i patch of bush still

m the gloom farther up the valley, I cjuld hear a stag l lanng. Presently I got a glimpse of him crossing the point of a ridge into the swamp. 1 stalked him within easy range, but in the dim light, though 1 saw he had a fine head, I could not make sure ot his points, so I refrained from shooting. He did not wait long, but proceeded up the gully, roaring louaiy at intervals, and looking tor his hinds, l followed as near as i dared, dodging benind clumps ot sciub, and era., ung, like the serpent or old, in pieces where tne cover was scanty. Suddenly 1 saw his hinds on a low spur coming down into the valley on the left. They had pricked up tlieir ears with that instinctive premonition of danger which is one of their chief characteristics, and, for some minutes, I had to he absolutely motionless on the edge of the swamp that filled the bottom <T t.ie gully. The stag joined them, and they all ucnt (n up the valley, t'le hinds, ;.s is invariably the case, leading. A~they disappeared o\er tie point of another ridge, 1 got a good i lew of the stag through my glasses. He was a ten-pointer with a good spread, beautifulh s\mmch la\ antlers, and. -tpparentlv. a good ouahty of horn. 1 thereupon decich J that ' would exercise the novice's prerogative and m< ke him m.ne, so ! proceeded to .stalk him a second time. 1 could now hear .■nother stag roaring fuither up the valley. Tlieie was but little cover that I could avail m\self of, and I had to be cMicmclv careful. When at leng-th, I g-ot another of the stag he '\as with his hinds on a point on my ri^rhi, and I was within 150 yards of him. The hinds, howe\ei, were very uneasy, and began to make off. so, with my heart beatm' somewhat quicker than usual, I raised m\self on one knee to cl-nr the swamp tfrsss, took steady aim, anJ fired. The stag bounded down the slope into a narrow cross gully on the

right out of sight, and I thought 1 had missed him. I then did a hundred yard's sprint up the valley and saw the hinds 1 running towards Mount loot. The stag was not with them, , and I thought I had lost him ; but, in a moment or two, lo and 1 behold, there he was, standing on the top of a knoll scarce a hundred yards away. There was no time for deliberation , now, so, standing up as 1 was, 1 took aim once more, and piessed the trigger. The stag dropped at once, and tumbled headlong for ntty feet down the bluff into the swamp, stone dead. 1 then found that my first shot also had taken effect, and that, in any case, he could not have escaped me. Thus did 1 secure my first stag, and there is no disguising the iact that, when, two or three hours later, 1 walked into camp with his head upon my shoulders, I felt very pleased with myself and the world in general. That evening I got another stag — an ' eleven-pointer, — but he was an easy stalk, and a somewhat indifferent head. No need, therefore, to say more about him. 1 Meantime, the others had been getting good sport. The , Barrister came home one day with a fifteen-pointer, from a I long stalk on the ridges away beyond the Broken River. Our | Host got a thirteen-pointer with a fine spread from the Ewe j Ridges across the Mungaroa River, and the Captain shot j another royal. At Riversdale, as a rule, scarce a day passes without some- ' one getting a good head ; but, whether we get heads or not , we enjoy the stalking. Indeed, some of the most enjoyable clays I spent were those on which I "drew blank." One such | day I remember, when I stalked two ten-pointers and saw many

hindb and stags, but did not liie a shot. I had i'onc up the C istle liner with the intention of stalking towards its head, but the wind veered round to the south, so I crossed over a high ridge an I came clown through the centre of "the Island." halting" every now and then to watch the stags with their hinds, or the hinds and their fawns, , s they basked in the warm sunshine, or wended their way, slowly feeding, back to cover. Some of the older stag's would have a fag watching- for them on the outskirts, but it was generally the hinds that would give the first warning- of impendingdanger. The wonderful manner in which deer warn one another of the presence of danger is well known to old stalkers. Millais mentions a very curious instance of it. On one occasion, in a park, he showed himself to a single old hind. She at once, by her strained attention and quick veering round, made her fear known to the animals alongside, who at once took the hint, all except two yearling calves that were feeding close to her. .Millais then witnessed a very pretty bit of red deer education. The two yearlings continued feeding without looking- up, whereupon the old lady approached each in turn and touched it lightly with the point of her foot, after which she again faced round and looked carefully at the spot where the danger had appeared. One of the yearlings took the hint ; but the other innocent, after looking up, . went on feeding- with leisurely indifference. This was. a little, ', too much for the now irate mother, who rushing at Her 41 J,

disobedient child administered buch a blow with one ot her fore legs as to knock the unfortunate youngster clean on his pins, lhat morning- 1 saw a somewhat similar incident, though the mother was a little more considerate, and did not lose her temper to such an extent as to deliver her offspring a knock-down blow. During this same day and the next, both our Host and the Barrister were fortunate in witnessing some rare incidents, and they came home with strange tales of stags in mortal combat, and other things.

Leaving a young stag, with his harem, on my light, 1 wended my way down one of the leading ridges towards the main valley or gully that runs through " the Island. I was just in time to see a lovely stag on a plateau about a mile and a-half away. I got down into the gully and stalked close to the place where I saw him, but when, halt an hour later, I peeped cautiously over the rim of the plateau there was no stag there ! Proceeding down over the plateau I was just in time to see a noble stag entering the manuka scrub and making towards the stream that ran under the trees in the main gully. He was going quite leisurely, as became a lord of the forest, stopping every now and then, craning his head forward, and giving vent to a loud roar. He carried a fine spread of horn. Owing to the scrub, 1 could not count his points accurately — he was a royal at least. I dodged down into the scrub and hurried forward in his direction, tearing my clothes and barking my shins in the rough, tall scrub, but thinking little of these trifles if I could only get a fair shot at him as he passed down through a bit of clearing, or a place where the scrub thinned out sufficiently to enable me to make sure of my aim. Coming near a likely spot I crept forward on the tip-toe of expectation, but alas ' I was too late. Proceeding on down to the bottom of the gully I got very close to him, for though he had now ceased roaring, T could hear him crunching his way through the scrub, evident!} in search of his hinds who had preceded him into the wood. Presently. without the least warning, an unseen hind "branched'" on my left only a few yards away, and so loudly that she almost made me jump. The warning signal of the hinds, a loud half bark, half cough, well described by the Scottish stalkers as " branching." is a sound unlike that made by any other animal, and when it comes upon you suddenly and unexpectedly at close quarters in a dense thicket, it gives you a weird sensation. Tt may be repeated two or three times till the hinds see you or "get your wind." Then your stalk is at an end. and you can say au revoir for that day to the lord of the forest, for away go the hinds, with the stags after them, the biggest stag generally bringing up the rear, and, thougfh they do not appear to go fast, they get over a lot of very rough ground in a very little time. Tn this particular gully we could seldom see stags or hinds; but at dawn, and in the gloaming we could always hear the stags roaring. There must have been some fine heads there ; but they were the heads of cunning old fellows, and we never got a shot at any of them. They had numerous tracks through the tall manuka scrub and the beech trees, leading down to one of their " soiling pools" and the clear waters of the stream from which they drank. In a clearing: some little way up the gully was a pond Upon which wild duck were lazily swimming- and quack-quacking-to one another in perfect safety and contentment. I returned to camp that day hungry and stag-less, but quite happy, the scenery, the exercise, the habits of the deer, and the excitement of being 1 in the midst of wild animals, and yet not able to see them, hidden away as they were in the dense scrub, making one forgret all the ills and cares of city life for the time being.

Another morning 1 went out alone, intending to stalk on the high ridges beyond the Broken River and adjoining the Government sanctuary, where i here were reported to be some splendid stags. It was a glorious morning. The Barrister — who was better than an alarm clock — had roused us early, " cookee " had regaled us with mutton chops and billy tea, and we started out in the clear moonlight. Theie had been a touch of frost in the air. such as the stalker lo\es, but the warm gentle airs 'hat h ere now drawing clown tho valley fiom the north-west, had melted the rime, and the drops were sparkling on the gtass, and the tall manuka scrub, as,

in the silvery moonlight I climbed to the summit of the ridge. I had a settled plan of action; but, in stalking, as is often the case, man proposes and a wandering -tag disposes. And so it was with me that day. So soon as I had got to the top of the ridge. I could hear the weird, wild, yawning roar of stags to right and to left of me. But paiticularlj loud and insistent was the roaring of one particular stag in a gully just below me on the right. I decided to go

ioi him. li< wa-> no Ljirai distance <i\\ a\ . and I stalked b\ sound down through the -c 1 üb, halting c\crj now and then in a bit of clearing", and straining" my eyes through the early morning; g-loom to get a sight of him, yet not succeeding. Though I could not see him I could make out from his roaring" that he was not st.ning in one plat < . but was slowly making his way up the gully. I followed the sound, and at last I got a glimpse of him as he crossed over a ridge into another gully. The dawn was just breaking gloriously in the east. I now hurried forward, and, reaching the crest of the ridere, I heard him roaring: on another ridge, beyond a clumn of bush that promised good cover foi what T hoped would be the final bit of the stalk. I crawled cautiously over the crest of the intervening ridge and wended my way warily through the trees below : but I had scarcely proceeded a hundred yards when a cock pheasant rose almost from my feet, and went whirring through the trees, starting both the stalker and the stalked. Climbing up t d the edgre of the bush on the left I neered through the branches, and saw his lordship lying down only eißf ht y yards away, but in such a position that

I could not get a fair shot at him. 1 could only see his head and antlers. He was lying right in the teeth of the sun, which. was just coming up on the horizon, and tlie flare on my glasses made it difficult to decide exactly what kind of a head he bore. 1 was sure of eleven points, and the head looked a symmetrical one, so I crawled back under cover of the tree once more, and continued the stalk, hoping to get into a better position for a shot. But though I got within fifty yards there were somany intervening branches that I could not make a certainty of him. Now, when a stag lies down there is no saying when he will get up. He may change his position in a few minutes, or lie may be content to lie there for two or three hours. There was no other way of approaching him, so I crent back to my former position on the edge of the bush. By this time he had sniffed danger and I saw him coming up the ridge towards me. There was now no time to lose, so I took quick aim and fired. The stag dropped on his knees, but rose again quickly and made off over the crest of the ridge into some thick scrub. I thought I had made a bad shot and had lost him, but, on ttacking him down, I found him lying dead in the scrub not more than a hundred yards from where lie first fell. He proved to be a royal with very symmetrical antlers, but with a poor spread and no great thickness of horn.

It is a curious thing- that quite a number of the heads shot in the Wairarapa district during: last season, though being of good shape, and having a good number of points, did not come up to expectations in the matter of quality. This is probably attributable to the drought during the late spring and summer. One well-known authority on red deer points out that extremes of climate affect deer very much. A very dry season, besides being bad for calving, drives them to the hill tops, where, though tney escape the flics, they find only poor and wirygrass, the consumption of which generates inferior heads. This, he add 6 ;, was well seen in the wonderful season of 1893 m Sco'land It also goes to show the futility of attempting- togauge the age of a stag by his horns. Indeed, wild stags, which live for twenty or thirty years, show no falling-off in antlers or body till after fourteen or fifteen years. In New Zealand, where the stags appear to develop at an earlier age, the case may be different, and it would be very interesting, and would lead to the acquisition of some valuable information, if the acclimatisation societies were to brand or mark in some way the deer they are now turning out. so that their ages could bedetermined in after years. This might very easily be done. " Poor quarters, rotten tops, and decayed and worn teeth," are, according to Millais, the signs of old age. Form or the number of points of the antlers are no test. Having secured my head and conveyed it to the top of the main ridge a little over a mile away, I went on tog-eta better view of the surrounding country. The sun was now climbing the heavens, but was not vet high enough to destroy the delicate shadows and half lights on the upper hills. Towards the east and north was the longserrated line of hills of the famous Te Awaite deer forest — a splendid sanctuary for the thousands of stags and" hinds that inhabit it. The edge of this forest joined our Host's estate on the high, well-grassed ridges overlooking the hills known as Stockholm. Looking west I saw the sea over some low dunes, while farther to the right rose the big steep mass of Mount Barton, and still more to the westward the sombre, forest-clad hills of the Government Sanctuary loomed through piling wreaths of morningmist.

Unlike the Scottish mountains and glens, this new land has yet to make its history. The clansmen have not spilt each other's blood on its bonnie braes, and I doubt

t,A Royal and an 11-pomter in foreground.) if ever it will possess such a weird figuie as the u.teh ot Ben-y-gloe. But ahcady the clouds of i'rag-cdy— uluch, aftei all, is first cousin to Romance — have begun to foim over it. Not far away is the forest where mv fnenu Andrew was lost, and met his death, fighting bra\ely, as was ever his wont, against the elements ; and away yonder, under the jagged edges of the Te Awaite Pinnacles, foul murder was done. For a long time the murderer travelled northwards through the mountain ranges — an outlaw, chased by detectives and living on the produce of his rifle and what he could steal from the huts and whares of the back-blocks. That year the Riversdale party was the only one out. and they stalked in couples, and slept with loaded rifles handy, for the murderer was supposed to be still in the district, and he was a desperate man. Eventually, he was tracked down, and died, unrepentant, on the scaffold

I have sated that some of the da\ s when I shot no deer were amongst the most enjoyable I spent. One such 1 remember. It was the second last day of our sojourn at Riversdale. It was arranged that the Barrister and the Captain should go by one beat, cur Hos and myself by another, and that we should meet away <it the far end of " the Island on the banks of the Poly stream, where. h/ good luck or good stalking, or both combined, we hoped to get a noble four-teen-pointer that had several times been seen in that locality. Having now secured three heads I left my rifle at home and took my camera. It was a glorious d<i\ . and our walk in the early morning up the Castle stream and across "the Island,' stalking a stag here and there, and watching the movements of the deer, was a most delightful one, though we nc\ ci fired a shot. Towards mid-day we came upon the other members of the part\ — the Barrister had shot his third stag, — and we all went down to the stream where we boiled the billy and had lunch. There under the shade of the manuka trees, wo laid us down and slept for an hour or so, and then on up stream, through a tall forest of manuka scrub with small clearings in search of the fourteen-pointer. But we saw no sign of him that day. The Captain and I got separated from the others, and while the former went on in quest of a stag, I waited on the hill-top to see what had become of them. In about half an hour I heard shooting, over in the direction of the Captain, and on rushing to the brow of the hill I saw him pioceeding up a gully in the waning light on the trail of a wounded stag. Presently from my point of vantage. I saw the stag crossing the divide at the head of the gully, and then I did some pretty hard sprinting, at intervals, toi half a mile or so, in order to be able to show the Captain the direction in which he had gone. Armed at top ut the gfully I found the Captain still on the trail; but when we got over the other side we could see no sign of the stag. We went on slowly down. Presently. fin our left, about a couple

of hundred yards away, there was a lustle in some old burnt scrub, and there was the deer, badly hit apparently, but making off once more for another gully. He paused for a moment broadside on. and the Captain, bringing his rifle to his shoulder quickly, made a splendid shot, and brought him down. He was an excellent eleven-pointer with a fine spread. We now had ten heads in all. and though entitled to shoot sixteen, we were content with the ten, though if, on the following day, which was our last, any of us had seen a particularly magnificent fourteen-pointer, or even a specially good royal, we should have had no scruples in adding to the number. We saw no such stags, though we let one splendid eleven-pointer go. He had as fine a head as any we shot, but lacking that one point

our sporting Host let him live, though for my own part I should have had small scruple in adding him to the tale.

One word about the Riversdale stalking. I had imagined it easy work, but I quickly came to a different conclusion. Fleet of foot as I am on a mountain side, I found that both our Host and my friend the Barrister were able to lead me a merry dance through the deer country. And the best of it all was that we had no stalker, or gillie, or sturdy Highland Sheltie to come to our assistance in case of need. The pioneers of the sport in New Zealand were accustomed to do everything themselves, and these traditions are still maintained at the Riversdale hut. Long may they continue. There is some satisfaction in gome out into the wild country with a rifle on your shoulder and a hunting knife in your belt, in marking down the game or far ridge or in deep corrie, in stalking and shooting your own stag, and finally in bringing your trophy into camp on your own back, across swamp, and gully. and ridge, and. mayhap. thrnuerh bush and scrub where your feelings cannot be adequately expressed — though they may be somewhat relieved — by language. But when, finally, you have consigned your " head " to the everrespectful Barnes for the skinning, when you have partaken of the merry-faced " Cookee's " savoury stew or his more c'chcious roast mutton, and have got your pipe going beside the cheery evening fire, you will be a murh better ma n — the language in ihe bush, notwithstanding, than when you left the city. Such days are red-letter da\ s in a man's lifetime

But. after all, "Cookee"' was not to have the honour of providing our final banquet, for our Host insisted on our spending a nitrht with him in his own house. There, in a spacious haU with the oars and the cap and jacket of a Cambridge Flue hung up below some of the finest Riversdale heads of former years, we received a hospitable welcome, and discarded our " hut manners " as easily as a hart at the end of each season sheds his antlers. And there, gentle reader, I would ask you to leave us, in the words of the nuaint William Scrope, " amidst cultivated society and high-born beau f v."

To fi>ht our battles o'er again, And thrice to slay the slain.