The Black-Tail Deer 171 



land. There is no deep water into which a deer can 

 be driven by hounds, and then shot at arm's-length 

 from a boat, as is the fashion with some of the city 

 sportsmen who infest the Adirondack forests dur- 

 ing the hunting season ; nor is the winter snow ever 

 deep enough to form a crust over which a man can 

 go on snowshoes, and after running down a deer, 

 which plunges as if in a quagmire, knock the poor, 

 wornout 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 float- 

 ing or jacking with a lantern in the bow of the 

 canoe, as practiced 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 ensure 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 excite- 

 ment all its own, if the hunter follows the hounds 



