CHAPTER TWO THE ROE DEER 



in the direction, they saw some large animal moving. Hav- 

 ing no doubt that it was a deer that they saw, the man who 

 had the gun took his aim, his finger was on the trigger, and 

 his eye along the barrel; he waited, however, to get a clear- 

 er view of the animal, which had ceased moving. At this 

 instant, his companion, who was close to him, saw, to his 

 astonishment, the flash of a gun from the spot where the 

 supposed deer was, and almost before he heard the report 

 his companion fell back dead upon him, and with the same 

 ball he himself received a mortal wound. The horror and 

 astonishment of the author of this unlucky deed can scarce- 

 ly be imagined when, on running up, he found, instead of 

 a deer.one man lyingdead and another senseless and mort- 

 ally wounded. Luckily, as it happened, the wounded man 

 lived long enough to declare before witnesses that his death 

 was occasioned solely by accident, and that his companion, 

 at the moment of his being killed, was aiming at the man 

 who killed them. The latter did not long survive the affair. 

 Struck with grief and sorrow at the mistake he had com- 

 mitted, his mind and health gave way, and he died soon 

 afterwards. 



The difference in the colour and kind of hair that a roe's 

 skin is covered with, at different seasons of the year, is as- 

 tonishingly great. From May to October they are covered 

 with bright red brown hair, and but little of it. In winter 

 their coat is a fine dark mouse-colour, very long and close, 

 but the hair is brittle, and breaks easily in the hand like 

 dried grass. When run with greyhounds, the roebuck at 

 first leaves the dogs far behind, but if pressed and unable 

 to make his usual cover, he appears to become confused 

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