244 FIELD SHOOTING. 



fire to it, if no one is awake to look after it. And 

 twice my tent caught fire in the daytime, when 

 we thought there was no danger, and went off 

 hunting with no one left at camp. Therefore I 

 say to every one who means to camp out on 

 sporting excursions, get a nice little stove. The 

 cost is small, the comfort large, and, except through 

 gross carelessness, there can be no danger what- 

 ever. 



To give a description of the common deer of 

 this country would be mere folly and imperti- 

 nence. It is often supposed that it likes best to 

 range in the vast forests, but I believe that to be 

 a mistake. Deer are most fond of a country in 

 which there are belts of timber-land and brush 

 interspersed with prairies and savannas. Much 

 of that part of Illinois where I lived at first is 

 somewhat of that character. When I first went 

 to the State, deer were exceedingly plentiful. I 

 have myself seen as many as thirty in a herd, and 

 men who had lived a long time in that part of 

 Illinois, when I went to reside there, told me they 

 had seen herds which could not have contained 

 less than seventy-five. In the cold weather the 

 deer went to the timber for shelter. In the warm 

 weather they did not go much to the woodland 



