JACK-SHOOTING IN A FOGGY NIGHT. 173 



(leer you could turn the wick so low down that 

 IK) light was visible, and when one was heard you 

 could run down toward him, and, with your finger 

 on the adjusting screw, turn on the light just when 

 •II wanted it, and not an instant before, and this 

 <) without a moment's pause. If the deer was 

 I the jump, it made no difference. The reflector 

 IS so powerfid, that, if you turned the wick well 

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

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

 ;id, the blaze was never off the leaping deer, 

 Avliose motion your eye would naturally follow, 

 and as your head turned, so, without thought or 

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

 aU hunters know, one trouble with the old style 

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

 when taking aim, only the fivnf 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, which 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 



