DIBS PISCATORI^. 509 



monarch" died ignobly. It was a sickening sight, and one I 

 hope never to witness again. When a man on a drive takes 

 his stand, his blood is up with the excitement of the chase, 

 and as the buck bounds by at full tilt, the heel of his gun 

 comes to his shoulder, his sight falls along the line of the 

 barrel, and his finger instinctively finds the trigger : but this 

 cold-blooded murder should be made a capital offence. Great 

 numbers of deer are sometimes destroyed, where they collect 

 during the time of a deep snow, in what are called " yards," 

 when a continued tramping makes a depressed enclosure, 

 from which they are unwilling or unable to escape. Here it 

 is that those who follow hunting as a business, come upon 

 them on their snow-shoes, shoot them down, and seud the 

 venison to market. A continued restriction to a yard though, 

 makes them very lean. 



Walt. You intimated that there were four of you, on your 

 .ast visit to Lake Pleasant ; did the whole party go together 

 when you camped out ? 



Nes. a pair of us only, when we wanted good fishing, and 

 the whole party, when we were not so eager and wanted a good 

 time; then the little Doctor was an important personage; 

 you ought to have known him twelve or fourteen years ago — 

 he is a sedate man now ; then he never could he quiet when 

 on an excursion, 



'* But spent his days in riot most ancouth, 

 And vexed with mirth the drowsy ear of night ; 

 Ah me ! in sooth he was a shameless wight, 

 Sore given to revel." 



Walt. Never mind Br. Caleb, and the bard with the 

 turned-down shirt collar ; there is a very different kind of 

 person across the creek looking at us, — who the deuce 

 is he? 



Nob. Why that's the man who denied me the right of way 



