66 ONTARIO. 



In the deep snow they are unfortunately very easily run 

 down by hunters on snow shoes. I do not know a more 

 pitiable object than a Virginian deer endeavouring to 

 escape from its pursuer in deep snow. When forced out 

 of the well-beaten paths of its yard, the active creature 

 makes a succession of desperate bounds, each one shorter 

 than the one before. At each plunge it sinks to its 

 withers in the snow. The cold-blooded pursuer knows 

 that his game is safe, and does not even waste a bullet. 

 He comes up leisurely behind the totally exhausted 

 quadruped, disregarding the pleading glance of the 

 wild and beautiful eye, and getting on its back, holds 

 it down in the snow till he cuts its throat with his knife. 

 Of all butchery this is the worst. 



But creeping deer in the early winter, when the snow 

 is light, is really good sport, and requires a very good 

 hunter. The old bucks shed their antlers in November, 

 but the young ones retain theirs till January, or even 

 February. In summer deer feed very much on grass 

 that grows in the open places in the forest and on the 

 edges of lakes and rivers. Paddling my canoe noiselessly 

 along the shores of a backwoods lake, I have often ap- 

 proached quite close to them. In districts where deer 

 are plentiful they make roads or paths through the bush, 

 and hunters in the fall of the year, stationing themselves 

 in the vicinity of these paths, or in passes between lakes, 

 have Jihe deer driven up to their rifles with dogs. The 

 flesh of the Virginian deer is capital venison, better than 

 the cariboo, or even than the moose ; and the antlers of 

 the bucks are branchy and handsome. 



The best sport in Canada West is unquestionably the 



