82 GAME ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



the last is the most difficult, though by far the noblest and most 

 sportsmanlike. Hounding requires that the sportsman should 

 have the assistance of a guide and dogs. The former must be 

 familiar with the runways of the deer, and the hounds must have 

 good noses and considerable endurance. The hunters are sta- 

 tioned at the various runways, and the dogs put on the track of 

 the game. The cry of the packs generally notifies the expectant 

 sportsman of the direction which the deer is taking, and if it is 

 running toward his stand he usually has time to prepare himself 

 for its coming. If the animal passes near him it requires but 

 little skill to bowl it over with his double barrel as it goes by. But 

 there are a great many right and left snap shots, and capital statu- 

 ettes on a runway who don't know much more of the haunts and 

 habits of their game than they do of crochet work or knitting. 

 They have an intelligent bush-beater who knows the lay of the 

 coveys, a dog with a good nose and well broken, a splendid pair 

 of barrels, and a keen eye and quick trigger. The guide leads up 

 to the hunting ground, then the dog takes the van and attends to 

 business, and when his tail gets stiff and a bird rises, the gun drops 

 him neatly, the attendant marks him down, the dog retrieves, and 

 the gunner puts him exultingly to bag. Precisely the same on a 

 runway. The guide who has previously tracked the deer or knows 

 his habitat, puts out the hound, which runs the deer to water, or 

 to cover by secluded or well known by-paths, and the sure aim of 

 the practiced marksman brings the game to grass. Now, so far 

 as the requirements of this sportsman go, all is well ; but his edu- 

 cation is anything but complete. He has actually begun at the 

 finishing school instead of the rudiments. 



By the other method of hounding practiced chiefly in the Adi- 

 rondacks, the deer is driven until it takes to the water, and when 

 so far from the shore that it cannot return, the hunters row after 

 it, and having approached within a few feet, one of them blows 

 out its brains. When the deer are thin they sink immediately 

 after being shot, and it is customary for the guide or one of the 

 hunters, if there be two in the boat, to hold the struggling brute by 

 the tail while the other shoots it, thus saving the carcass. Com- 

 ment is unnecessary. 



Driving deer is a far different kind of sport. It is chiefly em- 



