THIBTT YBABS A- HUNTER. 177 



If the weather was stormy, the skin could be spread 

 over the meat, and the drying still continued, the 

 fire being gradually increased until the meat was 

 thoroughly cured. In the mean time the hunter 

 could continue his operations without much interrup- 

 tion, as the fire had no effect in frightening away the 

 deer. When I went on a hunt, I usually carried a 

 good supply of salt, and arranged it so that if I did 

 not return at the end of three days a man foDowed 

 me with a horse, bringing me supplies, and conveying 

 home the venison I had taken. During all my hunts 

 I kept a constant lookout for deer licks, and if I found 

 none in a place favorable for deer, I made one near 

 an unfailing spring. The manner in which I made 

 the lick was to bore several holes in a black oak log 

 with an augur which I always carried with me for 

 the purpose, and into them put about three pints of 

 salt, with a small quantity of saltpeter, and insert a 

 plug in each hole. The wood soon becoming satura- 

 ted with the salt, the deer would gnaw it. If I found 

 a lick to which the deer at the proper season resorted , 

 I proceeded at once to build a scaffold, in order that 

 the deer might become accustomed to the sight of it 

 before I made use of it. If a tree stood within three 

 or four rods of the lick I built my scaffold upon that 

 If there was no tree in a favorable place, I set four 

 crotches in the earth, lay poles across, and make a 

 screen of bushes or bark to conceal myself from the 

 deer. About a month after I had prepared a log, I 

 visited it, and if the deer had found it, I built a 

 scaffold near it. fn hunting at these licks, I mounted 



