Till-: BLACK-TAILED AND VIRGINIA DEER. 357 



and finally came to a steep cliff, up which I clambered with 

 the nimbleness of a goat. When I reached the summit, I 

 heard human voices approaching me, and, a fe>v moments 

 later, I was amidst five of my companions who were out 

 searching for me. I learned from them that I had been 

 travelling in a circle, and that instead of crossing four or 

 five chasms and two streams, as I supposed, I had only 

 crossed one, my movements having led me to the same 

 chasm and stream every time. 



This chasm had taken up the shouts and the blasts of 

 the horns, and echoed them in so many directions that I 

 was deceived, and led hither and thither, and forced into 

 a veritable will-o'-the-wisp chase for which there was no 

 necessity. The sharp detonations of the shot-gun not 

 being so well adapted to produce an echo as the other 

 sounds, I was enabled to hear them distinctly in the direc- 

 tion from which they issued ; and were it not for these, I 

 would undoubtedly have been compelled to sleep that night 

 without shelter in the damp forest. I have slept there 

 alone since then, but under different circumstances, and 

 after experience had taught me what to do; hence I felt 

 no alarm about my safety. 



When we reached camp, I was hailed as the prodigal, and 

 many a witty joke was cracked at my expense as a woods- 

 man ; but the persiflage was atoned for by a thoughtful, 

 considerate kindness that would have done credit to ten- 

 der-hearted women. 



We spent a fortnight in the woods in the most pleasant 

 manner possible, and were almost sorry to leave our wild, 

 free life for the labor and conventionalism of civilization. 

 All our days were not devoted to hunting the lordly stag, 

 however, for we made excursions to interesting scenes in 

 our neighborhood, explored lakes not even known to local 

 geographers, and spent many a pleasant hour angling for 

 the delicious trout of the streams and tarns, and in shoot- 

 ing wild -fowl, or searching for grouse among their leafy 

 coverts. 



When we turned our faces homeward we had three wag- 



