338 DEER HUNTING.
parts of the country, forest-light, never fails to produce a very singular
feeling in him who witnesses it for the first time. There is something in
it which at times appears awfully grand. At other times, a certain degree,
of fear creeps over the mind, and even affects the physical powers, of
him who follows the hunter through the thick undergrowth of our woods,
having to leap his horse over hundreds of huge fallen trunks, at one time
impeded by a straggling grape-vine crossing his path, at another squeezed
between two stubborn saplings, whilst their twigs come smack in his
face, as his companion has forced his way through them. Again, he
every now and then runs the risk of breaking his neck, by being suddenly
pitched headlong on the ground, as his horse sinks into a hole covered
over with moss. But I must proceed in a more regular manner, and
leave you, kind reader, to judge whether such a mode of hunting would
suit your taste or not.
The hunter has returned to his camp or his house, has rested and
eaten of his game. He waits impatiently for the return of night. He
has procured a quantity of pine-knots filled with resinous matter, and has
an old frying-pan, that, for aught I know to the contrary, may have been
used by his great grandmother, in which the pine-knots are to be placed
when lighted. The horses stand saddled at the door. The hunter comes
forth, his rifle slung on his shoulder, and springs upon one of them,
while his son, or a servant, mounts the other, with the frying-pan and
the pine-knots. Thus accoutred, they proceed towards the interior of
the forest. When they have arrived at the spot where the hunt is to
begin, they strike fire with a flint and steel, and kindle the resinous
wood. The person who carries the fire moves in the direction judged to
be the best. The blaze illuminates the near objects, but the distant
parts seem involved in deepest obscurity. The hunter who bears the gun
keeps immediately in front, and after a while discovers before him two
feeble lights, which are produced by the reflection of the pine-fire from
the eyes of an animal of the deer or wolf kind. The animal stands
quite still. To one unacquainted with this strange mode of hunting, the
glare from its eyes might bring to his imagination some lost hobgoblin
that had strayed from its usual haunts. The hunter, however, nowise
intimidated, approaches the object, sometimes so near as to discern its
form, when raising the rifle to his shoulder, he fires and kills it on the
spot. He then dismounts, secures the skin and such portions of the flesh
as he may want, in the manner already described, and continues his
DEER HUNTING. 339
search through the greater part of the night, sometimes until the dawn
of day, shooting from five to ten deer, should these animals be plentiful
This kind of hunting proves fatal, not to the deer alone, but also
sometimes to wolves, and now and then to a horse or a cow, which may
have straggled far into the woods.
Now, kind reader, prepare to mount a generous, full blood Virginian
Hunter. See that your gun is in complete order, for, hark to the sound of
the bugle and horn, and the mingled clamour of a pack of harriers ! Your
friends are waiting you, under the shade of the wood, and we must together
go driving the light-footed deer. The distance over which one has
to travel is seldom felt, when pleasure is anticipated as the result: so,
galloping we go pell-mell through the woods, to some well known place,
where many a fine buck has drooped its antlers under the ball of the
hunter's rifle. The servants, who are called the drivers, have already
begun their search. Their voices are heard exciting the hounds, and unless
we put spurs to our steeds, we may be too late at our stand, and
thus lose the first opportunity of shooting the fleeting game, as it passes
by. Hark again ! The dogs are in chase, the horn sounds louder and
more clearly. Hurry, hurry on, or we shall be sadly behind !
Here we are at last ! Dismount, fasten your horse to this tree,
place yourself by the side of that large yellow poplar, and mind you do
not shoot me! The deer is fast approaching; I will to my own stand,
and he who shoots him dead wins the prize.
The deer is heard coming. It has inadvertently cracked a dead
stick with its hoof, and the dogs are now so near it that it will pass in a
moment. There it comes ! How beautifully it bounds over the ground !
What a splendid head of horns ! How easy its attitudes, depending, as,
it seems to do, on its own swiftness for safety ! All is in vain, however:
a gun is fired, the animal plunges and doubles with incomparable speed.
There he goes! He passes another stand, from which a second shot,
better directed than the first, brings him to the ground. The dogs, the
servants, the sportsmen are now rushing forward to the spot. The hunter
who has shot it is congratulated on his skill or good luck, and the chase
begins again in some other part of the woods.
A few lines of explanation may be required to convey a clear idea of
this mode of hunting. Deer are fond of following and retracing tinpaths
which they have formerly pursued, and continue to do so even after
they have been shot at more than once. These tracks are discovert d
y 2