The Whitetail Deer 51 



justified on the plea of hunger. This is also true of 

 lying in wait at a lick. Whoever indulges in any of 

 these methods, save from necessity, is a butcher pure 

 and simple, and has no business in the company of 

 true sportsmen. 



Fire hunting may be placed in the same category ; 

 yet it is possibly allowable under exceptional cir- 

 cumstances to indulge in a fire hunt, if only for the 

 sake of seeing the wilderness by torchlight. My 

 first attempt at big-game shooting, when a boy, was 

 "jacking" for deer in the Adirondacks, on a pond or 

 small lake surrounded by the grand northern forests 

 of birch and beech, pine, spruce, and fir. I killed a 

 spike buck; and while I have never been willing to 

 kill another in this manner, I can not say that I re- 

 gret having once had the experience. The ride over 

 the glassy, black water, the witchcraft of such silent 

 progress through the mystery of the night, can not 

 but impress one. There is pleasure in the mere 

 buoyant gliding of the birch-bark canoe, with its 

 curved bow and stern; nothing else that floats pos- 

 sesses such grace, such frail and delicate beauty, as 

 this true craft of the wilderness, which is as much 

 a creature of the wild woods as the deer and bear 

 themselves. The light streaming from the bark 

 lantern in the bow cuts a glaring lane through the 

 gloom ; in it all objects stand out like magic, shining 

 for a moment white and ghastly and then vanishing 

 into the impenetrable darkness; while all the time 



