174 ADVENTURES IN THE WILDERNESS. 



the head, casts its light from lock to muzzle, and 

 so enables the hunter to draw his bead as " fine " 

 as he may choose. Nothing need be said in favor 

 of this jack, — which is here for the first time de- 

 scribed, and thus made common property, — be- 

 yond the fact that, during the whole season in 

 which I hunted, mostly nights, I never marked a 

 deer with a bullet back of the ears, unless he was 

 on the jump when I shot. And time and again, 

 as John Plumbley and many friends can testify, 

 on nights good, bad, and indifferent, sitting, kneel- 

 ing, or standing in the bow of a tottlish boat, I have 

 sunk my bullet as squarely between the eyes as 

 one may place his finger. One word more touch- 

 ing the advantages of this jack. All my readers 

 who have hunted deer at night know that full 

 one half of them started will go out of the river 

 on a jump, and, when ten or twelve rods from 

 •the bank, come to a stand-still. Now this dis- 

 tance is too great for an old-style jack to illu- 

 minate; and often the hunter must signal his 

 guide to paddle on, when he knows the buck he 

 wants stands not a dozen rods away, looking 

 straight at him. Now, with the aid of a reflector, 

 my jack will throw a lane of light from fifteen to 

 twenty rods ; and if the deer stops within that dis- 

 tance, as three out of five will, and you hold steady, 

 he is sure to come into your boat. Never shaU I 

 forget an old buck I laid out one night up South 



