52 THE WILDERNESS HUNTER 



a lick. Whoever indulges in any of these 

 methods save from necessity, is a butcher, 

 pure and simple, and has no business in the 

 company of true sportsmen. 



Fire hunting may be placed in the same 

 category ; yet it is possibly allowable under 

 exceptional circumstances to indulge in a fire 

 hunt, if only for the sake of seeing the wilder- 

 ness by torch-light. My first attempt at big- 

 game shooting, when a boy, was " jacking " 

 for deer in the Adirondacks, on a pond or 

 small lake surrounded by the grand northern 

 forests of birch and beech, pine, spruce, and 

 fir. I killed a spike buck ; and while I have 

 never been willing to kill another in this man- 

 ner, I cannot say that I regret having once 

 had the experience. The ride over the glassy, 

 black water, the witchcraft of such silent 

 progress through the mystery of the night, 

 cannot but impress one. There is pleasure 

 in the mere buoyant gliding of the birch-bark 

 canoe, with its curved bow and stern ; noth- 

 ing else that floats possesses such grace, such 

 frail and delicate beauty, as this true craft of 

 the wilderness, which is as much a creature 

 of the wild woods as the deer and bear them- 

 selves. The light streaming from the bark 

 lantern in the bow cuts a glaring lane through 

 the gloom ; in it all objects stand out like 

 magic, shining for a moment white and ghastly 

 and then vanishing into the impenetrable 

 darkness ; while all the time the paddler in 

 the stern makes not so much as a ripple, and 

 there is never a sound but the occasional 

 splash of a muskrat, or the moaning uloo-oo 

 uloo-uloo of an owl from the deep forests ; and 



