240 Life of Audubon. 



rection judged to be the best. The blaze illuminates the 

 near objects, but the distant parts seem involved in deep- 

 est obscurity. 



" The hunter who bears the gun keeps immediately in 

 front, and after a while discovers before him two feeble 

 lights, which are produced by the reflection of the pine 

 fire from the eyes of an animal of the deer or wolf kind. 

 The animal stands quite still. To one unacquainted with 

 this strange mode of hunting, the glare from its eyes might 

 bring to his imagination some lost hobgoblin that had 

 strayed from its usual haunts. The hunter, however, no- 

 wise intimidated, approaches the object, sometimes so 

 near as to discern its form, when, raising the rifle to his 

 shoulder, he fires and kills it on the spot. He then dis- 

 mounts, secures the skin and such portions of the flesh as 

 he may want, in the manner already described, and con- 

 tinues his search through the greater part of the night, 

 sometimes to the dawn of day, shooting from five to ten 

 deer, should these animals be plentiful. This kind of 

 hunting proves fatal, not to the deer alone, but also some- 

 times to wolves, and now and then to a horse or a cow 

 which may have strayed far into the woods. 



" Now, kind reader, prepare to mount a generous, full 

 blood Virginia hunter ; see that your gun is in complete 

 order, for hark to the sound of the bugle and horn, and 

 the mingled clamor of a pack of harriers. Your friends 

 are waiting you under the shade of the wood, and we 

 must together go driving the light-footed deer. The dis- 

 tance over which one has to travel is seldom felt when 

 pleasure is anticipated as the result, so galloping we go 

 pell-mell through the woods to some well-known place, 

 where many a fine buck has drooped its antlers under 

 the ball of the hunter's rifle. The servants, who are 

 called the drivers, have already begun their search, their 

 voices are heard exciting the hounds, and unless we pul 



