4 The Wilderness Hunter 



mean" the rider finds that his rifle adds a new ele- 

 ment of interest to the performance, which is of 

 course hailed with loud delight by all the men on 

 quiet horses. Then we splash off over the river, 

 scramble across the faces of the bluffs, or canter 

 along the winding cattle paths, through the woods, 

 until we come to the bottom we intend to hunt. 

 Here a hunter is stationed at each runway along 

 which it is deemed likely that the deer will pass; 

 and one man, who has remained on horseback, starts 

 into the cover with the hounds; occasionally this 

 horseman himself, skilled, as most cowboys are, in 

 the use of the revolver, gets a chance to kill a deer. 

 The deep baying of the hounds speedily gives warn- 

 ing that the game is afoot ; and the watching hunt- 

 ers, who have already hid their horses carefully, look 

 to their rifles. Sometimes the deer comes far ahead 

 of the dogs, running very swiftly with neck stretched 

 straight out; and if the cover is thick such an ani- 

 mal is hard to hit. At other times, especially if 

 the quarry is a young buck, it plays along not very 

 far ahead of its baying pursuers, bounding and strut- 

 ting with head up and white flag flaunting. If struck 

 hard, down goes the flag at once, and the deer 

 plunges into a staggering run, while the hounds yell 

 with eager ferocity as they follow the bloody trail. 

 Usually we do not have to drive more than one or 

 two bottoms before getting a deer, which is forth- 

 with packed behind one of the riders, as the distance 



