SIR — There are many beautiful places in Britain for tourists to visit for various forms of recreation, particularly walking, each with its own unique characteristic.

Dartmoor has the high tors, the Lake District has of course the lakes, the Scottish Highlands and Snowdonia have the wild, natural rugged mountains - and Exmoor has wild red deer.

The red deer are the main reason why many visitors come to Exmoor - the anticipation that at any place on the moors red deer may be encountered, often at very close quarters, is a compelling attraction. Or at least it was.

In her article of September 16, Frances Fry wrote two very significant phrases - "Where were all the other deer, the large herds of yesteryear" and "It's a great joy to see deer on the moor". And in last Friday's edition there were three reports relating to the business recovery of Exmoor. I believe these issues to be intrinsically linked.

My wife and I, like Frances Fry, make many trips on to the moors and have also noted a dramatic decline in the number of red deer being visible.

Only two years ago we encountered herds of over 40 deer but today a herd of eight is more common, when seen at all. I understand the situation on the Quantocks to be even worse.

Obviously poachers are having a field day but this level of decline can, in my opinion, only be with the express approval of farmers and landowners who see no prospect of deer hunting being resumed.

The farming community has always stated that if it couldn't hunt then it would not tolerate the destruction to crops that this large animal inflicts.

Many people we encounter have a suspicion that farmers are cashing in on the sale of deer to boost their current low incomes. Or has there been an official mass cull because of foot and mouth which we have not been told about?

The correspondence that has been ongoing in this newspaper relating to the rights and wrongs of deerhunting is, to my mind, now irrelevant - very soon there will be no deer left to hunt.

The impact on tourism and the local economy will be enormous. There will be no takers for the holiday lets recently developed by Exmoor farmers and others.

All businesses on Exmoor should be concerned about this self-destruct situation and the local authorities, particularly the National Park Authority, who have the red deer stag as their logo, should be very worried indeed.

Unless of course they can tell us where all those missing deer are hiding!

M R Dray,

Western Lane,

Minehead.