158 The Black-Tail Deer. 



who infest the Adirondack forests during the hunting 

 season ; nor is the winter snow ever deep enough to form 

 a crust over which a man can go on snow-shoes, and after 

 running down a deer, which plunges as if in a quagmire, 

 knock the poor, worn-out brute on the head with an axe. 

 Fire-hunting is never tried in the cattle country ; it would 

 be far more likely to result in the death of a steer or 

 pony than in the death of a deer, if attempted on foot 

 with a torch, as is done in some of the Southern States ; 

 while the streams are not suited to the floating or jacking 

 with a lantern in the bow of the canoe, as practised in the 

 Adirondacks. Floating and fire-hunting, though by no 

 means to be classed among the nobler kinds of sport, yet 

 have a certain fascination of their own, not so much for 

 the sake of the actual hunting, as for the novelty of being 

 out in the wilderness at night ; and the noiselessness 

 absolutely necessary to insure success often enables the 

 sportsman to catch curious glimpses of the night life of 

 the different kinds of wild animals. 



If it were not for the wolf poison, the plains country 

 would be peculiarly fitted for hunting with hounds ; and, 

 if properly carried on, there is no manlier form of sport. 

 It does not imply in the man who follows it the skill that 

 distinguishes the successful still-hunter, but it has a dash 

 and excitement all its own, if the hunter follows the 

 hounds on horseback. But, as carried on in the Adi- 

 rondacks and in the Eastern and Southern mountains 

 generally, hounding deer is not worthy of much regard. 

 There the hunter is stationed at a runaway over which 

 deer will probably pass, and has nothing to do but sit still 



