THE VIRGINIA DEER 121 



gunner on his run-way in the woods, has been pro- 

 hibited. It is also unlawful now in most places (and 

 should be everywhere) to shoot deer at night with 

 the aid of torches or lamps. 



This was an eas}' and somewhat picturesque form 

 of sport. The sportsman, seated in a canoe with a 

 blazing torch at the bow or more often a powerful 

 lantern, called a " jack," on a stick or on his head, was 

 paddled slowly about the margins of lakes and streams, 

 until a deer was seen feeding in the water ; the guide 

 moved the canoe slowly forward until the shooter 

 was within very short range, when he killed the timid 

 but curious deer, which had stopped feeding in the 

 lily-pond to gaze at the strange light, often with a 

 load of buck-shot. 



This was a common way of taking the deer in the 

 Adirondacks, in Maine, in Michigan, and ever3'where 

 where there were deer and lakes and streams on 

 which to float the canoe. It is no wonder that these 

 beautiful animals, when driven by the loud-yelling 

 hounds by day to the shot-guns ambushed on their 

 run-ways or by their lakes, became night-feeders. It 

 is no wonder that when summer night-shooting was 

 added to the hounding by day the deer were nearly 

 exterminated. 



I have already referred to the fact that in the West, 

 where the white-tail is found associated with the mule- 

 deer, he will be seen in the thickets and timber along 

 the streams. I have jumped these deer singly or in 

 little bands in the tall grass of couR-s or draws when 

 riding thrcnigli a country where the mule-deer were 

 abundant. White-tails were abundant a few years 



