262 HUNTING TRIPS 



dack forests during the hunting season ; nor 

 is the winter snow ever deep enough to 

 form a crust over which a man can go on 

 snow-shoes, and after running down a deer, 

 which plunges as if in a quagmire, knock 

 the poor, worn-out brute on the head with 

 an axe. Fire-hunting is never tried in the 

 cattle country ; it would be far more likely 

 to result in the death of a steer or pony than 

 in the death of a deer, if attempted on foot 

 with a torch, as is done in some of the 

 Southern States ; while the streams are not 

 suited to the floating or jacking with a lan- 

 tern in the bow of the canoe, as practised in 

 the Adirondacks. Floating and fire-hunt- 

 ing, though by no means to be classed 

 among the nobler kinds of sport, yet have a 

 certain fascination of their own, not so 

 much for the sake of the actual hunting, as 

 for the novelty of being out in the wilder- 

 ness at night; and the noiselessness abso- 

 lutely necessary to insure success often en- 

 ables the sportsman to catch curious 



