138 SPORT IN NORTH AMERICA. 



During breakfast, my host proposed to me to join 

 himself and some friends in a grand hunt on the 

 Island of St. John, close to Edisto, where the woods 

 harboured large herds of the Virginian deer.* The 

 proposal was a most agreeable one, and I accepted 

 it with many thanks. In the course of the day, my 

 host collected several of his neighbours, and next 

 day, at five in the morning (it was on the 25tli of 

 January, 1843), we were embarked in a sloop, and 

 crossed the strait which separates Edisto from St. 

 John's, landing close to a little house which served 

 as stable and cattle-shed for some men who had 

 charge of a troop of mustangs belonging to Mr. 

 DaUifold. 



The hounds were coupled, the horses saddled, 

 and the breakfast served up on a rustic table, 

 covered with a white cloth. When we had satisfied 

 our appetites, which had been sharpened by the brisk 

 spa- air, every one sallied out to choose his mount. 

 One of the party was M. de L , an ex-deputy 



* This is the generic name, or family title, which the learned 

 Audubon has bestowed upon the noble creature which Gaston, Phcebus, 

 and so many other wi-iters on sport, have described in their writings. 

 It is worth noticing, however, that the deer of the United States 

 {Cariacus Virginianus) is of about the same dimensions and colour of 

 fur as the European red deer. The main point of distinction between 

 it and the latter is to be found in the shape of the horns, which, instead 

 of being arranged like those of the European animal, are bent so as to 

 describe a curve, with the point turned over the muzzle ; so that, to 

 explain better this freak of nature, we may say that our deer fight by 

 raising the head, but the American animals employ the contrary 

 method, and strike downwai'ds like the hammer on the anvil. 



