176 A SPORTSMAN'S EDEN. 



took me for a log and perched for some seconds 

 on my shoulder. 



But no deer came my way ; indeed, I may as 

 well confess at once that, though I tried Cedar 

 River twice and went on to Walkley's dam, I 

 never saw a live deer in the Adirondacks. Two 

 were killed by our party ; one by the Doctor, 

 and one by Dick Birch, the guide, the first being 

 an exceptionally fine beast, weighing 220 Ib. 

 when gralloched. 



The hounds are the only interesting element 

 in this form of sport, and it is well worth while 

 to watch them work. The one tracker takes all 

 the hounds, and visits the feeding-grounds of the 

 deer until he finds a fresh track leading to the 

 spot in which the stag has couched for the day. 

 If the dogs own to the track, the man slips a 

 single hound and goes on. More than one dog 

 is never slipped upon the same track, and no dog 

 is slipped on a fawn's track, partly because the 

 game is not worth the candle, but more because 

 a fawn, by circling round and round over the 

 same ground, so stains it as to utterly baffle the 

 hound. When once the deer is roused, the chase 

 lasts on an average about a couple of hours, and 

 to be successful your hound must not only be 

 staunch and utterly self-reliant, but swift to boot ; 

 for if the stag is not well bustled he will go clean 



