133 PIONEER LIFE ; OR 



killed another. This made a load lor our horse, and 

 we accordingly started at once for home, and the 

 next day went for the first two. When we had 

 loaded them and proceeded a short distance, we 

 killed another, which we were compelled to leave 

 and return for the next day. 



About the middle of July, 1805, Morrison, Francis 

 and myself were out on a hunt. Going up the creek 

 about five miles, we commenced floating down, and 

 soon shot a deer, which we stowed away in our 

 canoe. When we had gone a short distance farther, 

 two of us saw a deer in the stream, and both fired at 

 the same time, but neither appeared to hit it. We 

 re-loaded and directed the man who was steering t« 

 run the canoe to the shore. We then stood on the 

 shore, about thirty rods from the deer, and each 

 fired eight shots at it, as rapidly as we could load, 

 when our guns became so hot that we were compelled 

 to stop. The steersman had been holding up the 

 torch^for us to see by, yet the position of the animal 

 was the same as when first observed. At each shot 

 it had seemed to spring up, each time higher and 

 higher, and dropping into the same spot. We now 

 threw sticks at it, to drive it away, when it gave two 

 or three leaps, and suddenly disappeared. This 

 affair may appear somewhat strange to the reader, 

 as it did to me, but the facts arc as I have stated, 

 and alwavs appeared to me unaccountable. 



