86 Deer and Antelope of North America 



in the red. It stood motionless, gazing at the 

 light with a curiosity wholly unmixed with alarm, 

 and at the shot wheeled and fell at the water's 

 edge. We made up our mind to return to camp 

 that night, as it was before midnight. I carried 

 the buck and the torch, and the guide the boat, 

 and the mile walk over the dim trail, occasionally 

 pitching forward across a stump or root, was a 

 thing to be remembered. It was my first deer, 

 and I was very glad to get it ; but although only 

 a boy, I had sense enough to realize that it was 

 not an experience worth repeating. The paddler 

 in such a case deserves considerable credit, but 

 the shooter not a particle, even aside from the 

 fact to which I have already alluded, that in too 

 many cases such shooting results in the killing of 

 nursing does. No matter how young a sportsman 

 is, if he has a healthy mind, he will not long take 

 pleasure in any method of hunting in which some- 

 body else shows the skill and does the work so 

 that his share is only nominal. The minute that 

 sport is carried on on these terms it becomes a 

 sham, and a sham is always detrimental to all who 

 take part in it. 



Whitetail are comparatively easily killed with 

 hounds, and there are very many places where 

 this is almost the only way they can be killed at 

 all. Formerly in the Adirondacks this method 

 of hunting was carried on under circumstances 



