THE REV. JOHN RUSSELL. 283 



perfect knowledge of which could only be 

 acquired by long experience and the keenest 

 and nicest observation. With the perceptive 

 faculty of a prairie-hunter, he had to note care- 

 fully every trace, slot, or sign of the wary game, 

 whose haunts and ambush it was his object to 

 discover. How difficult the lesson, but how 

 well it may be learned, may be gathered from 

 the picture of a harbourer so artistically painted 

 bv Mr. Whvte-Melville in " Katerfelto?' "The 

 ground," he writes, "must indeed be hard, and 

 the * slot ' or print of the animal's feet, many 

 hours old to baffle Red Rube, who, stooping to 

 the line like a bloodhound, reads off, as from 

 a book, the size, sex, weight, and age of the 

 passing deer, the pace at which it was travel- 

 ling, its distance ahead, and the probability of 

 its affording a run." 



Russell's pursuit however, of the noble 

 animal commenced only with the uncoupling of 

 the tufters — the point at which the other has 

 brought his labours to a close. But from that 

 moment, although simply a looker-on like the 

 rest of the field, yet owing to his intimate 

 knowledge of the dodges which, before break- 

 ing cover, an old deer will adopt to save his 

 haunches, many a needless sacrifice has been 

 averted and many a glorious run obtained. 

 An old stag, for instance, rarely if ever goes to 

 lair without having a brocket, or young stag. 



