Time Wrought Modifications of the Hunt- 

 ing Knife 



By R. A. KANE 

 PART II 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS AND DRAWINGS. 



another occasion I was 

 still-hunting in the edge of 

 the green wood which 

 marked the limits of the 

 broad expanse of burnt 

 district. It was good 

 deer country, and I was 

 momentarily expecting to 

 get a standing shot or to 

 see the flash of white that would be the 

 signal for action on my part. While step- 

 ping cautiously along and peering care- 

 fully in every direction, I was suddenly 

 startled by the vicious crack of a high power 

 rifle on my left and seemingly but a few rods 

 distant. Instinctively I sprang forward to 

 the inviting shelter of the trunk of a green 

 hemlock, placing it between me and the 

 direction from which the sound had come. 

 The reason for my sudden and unpremeditated 

 action will be clear to those of our readers 

 who will remember that there is no . closed 

 season on hunters in Wisconsin and Michigan. 

 I stood edgewise to the trunk of the tree, 

 hugging it closely. As soon as my wits were 

 in working order, I yelled lustily, though 

 nervously to apprise the shooter of my prox- 

 imity. He answered promptly with the 

 woodsman's hail (a full mouthed call) ending 

 with a clear far sounding whoop. In less than 

 a minute the invisible hunter emerged from 

 behind a cluster of young balsams, and as 



A YOUNG HUNTER'S KNIFE, WITH HANDLE OF 

 LEG BONE FROM FAWN 



he approached said, "Guess you jumped him 

 for me." 



" 'Jue get him?" 



"Sure." 



"Bully for you," and together we walked 

 a distance of about fifty yards to where a 

 fine young buck lay with a .30-30 through 

 his neck. 



"Got him standin' when he was listening 

 on his back track" explained the stripling 

 hunter. 



It was a mild November day and as he 

 wore no coat, I noticed that lie apparently 

 carried neither belt or hunting knife, and 

 that his supply of cartridges was carried 

 in the hip pocket of his mackinaw trousers 

 in the original card-board box. Resting his 

 rifle against a convenient tree he proceeded 

 to dress his game with the most unique 

 specimen of cutlery that was ever carried 

 by a .sportsman. The blade was shaped like 

 that of a cobbler's knife, exactly like the ones 

 we have seen used by the spectacled village 

 shoemaker to trim the sole, and which was 

 sharpened ever and anon on a fragment of 

 coarse grindstone, or a sheet of sandpaper, 

 tacked to his work bench. The young hunter's 

 blade was less than three inches in length, 

 its back straight, and the edge curved sharply 

 from handle to point. A strong tang about 

 equal in length to the blade was left for the 

 handle, and upon this was tightly driven 

 about 3 inches of the leg bone of a fawn, 

 the enlargement at the joint forming a sort 

 of natural guard for the hand. As he pro- 

 ceeded with the work of dressing his game, 

 I watched him with considerable interest as 

 I was curious to know what sort of a job 

 could be done with such an inferior looking 

 tool. He first made a small incision at the 

 throat, not longer than the width of his 

 blade, then cutting latterly under the skin, 

 he severed the jugular, windpipe and gullet. 

 After neatly circling the vent of the body 

 with the slender point of his knife, he made 

 an incision about five inches long extending 

 back from the navel, then inserting his fore- 

 arm into the opening thus made, with a few 

 dexterous cuts of his short blade, the dia- 

 phragm and other natural adhesions were cut 

 away, while heart, liver, lungs, as well as 

 the baser parts were easily withdrawn, from 

 front and rear. When assisting my young 

 friend to hang the deer for drainage, I noticed 

 that there was scarcely a stain on the beauti- 

 full snow white hair of the under parts, and 

 there was practically none of the meat ex- 

 posed to tempt, either predatory birds or 

 animals. I had learned something new about 

 the hunting knife. 



Notwithstanding the countless number of 

 hunting knives manufactured by our great 



