184 GAME. 



rocks and escaping from a pursuer after receiving a 

 wound entirely disabling to most animals, is exemplified 

 in the following anecdote, which I relate at the risk of 

 becoming tedious : I was hunting near Eed Eocks, on 

 the Purgatory Eiver, with a dear friend who lives in St. 

 Louis, Missouri. As I approached the brink of a chasm, 

 a deer sprung to his feet on the opposite brink, and 

 stood facing directly towards me. It was a very long shot ; 

 but estimating the distance as well as I could, and taking 

 careful aim, I fired. I saw the bullet strike the sloping 

 rock below and in front of the deer, which, however, fell, 

 but immediately got up again and made off. I lost some 

 time in finding a place where the chasm could be crossed, 

 but finally got over, took the trail of the deer, and 

 followed it for about 200 yards, when the animal sprung 

 up from a little cover, and attempted to make off, but 

 fell ' all in a heap ' in the top of a small fallen tree. I was 

 within six feet of my game, when I saw another deer at 

 some distance, went after, wounded, followed a long 

 distance, but finally lost it. I then returned to bag my 

 first. To my very great surprise it was not to be found. 

 My servant came up with the horses, and aided me in the 

 search, but to no purpose. There was no blood anywhere 

 to be discovered, and the ground was so marked with tracks 

 that it was impossible to follow those of any one deer. 

 Close by was a sharp ravine, not over eight or ten feet 

 deep, across which was a game trail : so steep, however, 

 that I could scarcely believe that a wounded deer would 

 make the passage. However, as one side had been 

 thoroughly searched, I crossed it, and had gone scarcely 

 twenty paces, when the deer jumped up and made 

 directly for me. I was about to fire at it again when I 

 noticed that a hind leg was broken and that his gait 

 was otherwise most unsteady. I therefore ran after, 

 thinking to catch him. He soon slipped on a rock and 

 fell. Getting close to him I noticed that the bone of his 

 fore leg was protruding through the skin of the shoulder. 



