JACK-SHOOTIXG IN A FOGGY NIGHT. 173 



deer you could turn tlie wick so low down that 

 no light was visible, and when one was heard you 

 could run down toward him, and, with your finger 

 on the adjusting screw, turn on tlie light just when 

 you wanted it, and not an instant before, and this 

 too without a moment's pause. If the deer -was 

 on the jump, it made no difference. The reflector 

 was so pow^erful, that, if you turned the w^ick well 

 up, it made a lane some three rods wide and fifteen 

 rods long as light as day, and the jack being on your 

 head, the blaze was never off the leaping deer, 

 whose motion your eye w^ould naturally follow, 

 and as your head turned, so, without thought or 

 effort on your part, turned the jack. Moreover, as 

 all hunters know, one trouble with the old style 

 of jacks is, that as you hold your rifle under it, 

 when taking aim, only the front sight is lighted 

 up ; and the rear sight being in the dark, you can- 

 not " draw it fine," but are ever liable to " shoot 

 over." Shooting with the old style is but little bet- 

 ter than guess shooting, any way. To be sure, you 

 might discard the rifle, and with an old blunder- 

 buss, charged with slugs or buck-shot, w^hich scat- 

 ter twenty feet in going forty, get your deer. But 

 this is simply slaughter, — a proceeding too shame- 

 ful for a sportsman ever to engage in. A man 

 who drops his deer with anything but a single 

 bullet should be hooted out of the woods. Now 

 the jack I am describing, when placed firmly on 



