394 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



camp, and it seemed as if each one was determined to spoil more 

 of it tlian another. At first ravenous, then moderate, tlien del- 

 icate, picking over the savory mess to get a sweet morsel." 



The supper in camp is not a hasty meal, towards the end 

 at least, and is usually accompanied by full accounts of the in- 

 cidents of the day and of former sporting experiences, which 

 are continued long after the pipes have been lighted and the 

 weary hunter is stretched out upon his robe at the mouth of the 

 tent, enjoying the soothing influence of the burned herb, without 

 which camp life would lose half its charms. 



Perhaps the most exhilarating mode of chasing the deer, is in 

 the prairie with the greyhound. The broad, unbroken prairie 

 presents a field for this sport unsurpassed. After the prairie fires 

 have left most of the elevated portions of the great plain quite 

 naked, and the dry seasons which generally prevail in the fall of 

 the 5^ear leave the sloughs sufficiently hard for the free passage of 

 the horse, while the tall grass which covers them and has been by 

 moisture kept too green to feed the fire, which consumed that 

 which had matured and withered on the dry upland, the proper 

 conditions for this unparalleled sport exist. 



The dogs should be well trained to the sport, should be strong 

 and enduring, and the more experience they have had the better. 

 The horse as well as the dog soon learns to enter eagerly into 

 • the spirit and the excitement of the chase, and evidently enjoys 

 it as much as his master. It takes a smart greyhound to come 

 up to the average deer on the prairies, and only one that has 

 learned his lesson severely can handle the deer after he is over- 

 taken. Much of this he must learn by experience aided by his 

 own sagacity. His master is rarely up at the first encounter, 

 and the neophyte is sure to be cut by the feet and antlers of the 

 deer, which the latter knows how to use with great dexterity. 

 These wounds are the chastening lessons of the tyro, and if intel- 

 ligent, he soon learns how to avoid them. But the experienced 

 dog appreciates help, and will prolong the chase in order to secure 

 it, if it is in prospect, either from the hunter or the rest of the 

 pack, and will only close when he sees that he alone can over- 

 take the quarry. The expert greyhound will not attempt to 

 pull down his game by main force, but will take advantage of 

 his momentum to throw him, when the fall must be severe; and 

 I have seen this done repeatedly before closing. In this way he 

 greatly exhausts the deer by these repeated hard falls, and gives 

 time for the slower dogs to come up, or his master to arrive to 

 assist at the death. 



