108 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



kerchief to it, and left this banner waving to denote 

 possession, also to furnish a hint to the prairie wolves that 

 they had hetter steer clear. That night at the tavern bar 

 in the most ostentatious manner, in presence of the assem- 

 bled crowd, I ordered a team to be got ready in the morning 

 to bring in the big buck; old leather-stocking, xotto voce, 

 remarking that I had not been reared on the right soil to 

 be able to come that game. However, next morning, when 

 I arrived with my trophy, the crowd congratulated me, 

 while leather-stocking remarked that he knew not what the 

 world was coming to, by G d, when a Britisher, with a 

 bird gun, could kill the biggest buck in Illinois In con- 

 clusion I would say that in skinning we found that at the 

 first shot one grain had gone through the lungs, while two 

 more had lodged further back. The gross weight of this 

 deer was one hundred and eighty-four pounds. 



Shooting deer driven to water by hounds is a very 

 common method adopted in autumn for their destruction. 



While visiting in Canada West, I chanced to make the 

 acquaintance of a young Highlander ardently devoted to 

 the chase, and who, when he found that I was also a 

 would-be disciple of the chaste Diana, at once proposed, as 

 the season was suitable and business affairs did not interfere, 

 that we should start for the gigantic and then unbroken 

 woods which covered the township of Oro, lying on the 

 edge of that placid sheet of water, so well known for its 

 lovely woodland scenery, Lake Simcoe. After a long tedious 

 walk over the most villanous roads that ever unfortunate 

 was condemned to traverse, we arrived late at night opposite 

 Snake Island, then inhabited by a remnant of the once 



