THE RESULT OF A COMBAT. 153 



had better be called large and long poles, for, when com- 

 pared with the foundation timbers, they were nothing more, 

 have, of course, above where they are covered with brush 

 and earth, interstices, or crevices, between them. 



On our return, and as we came in sight of the dam, I, 

 being in the forward boat, saw a small deer, laying stretched 

 out upon these poles, dead, hanging, as it were, by one foot. 

 My impression was, that it had been shot, and dragged up 

 there, and left by our pioneer for the present. We found, 

 however, upon examination, that the deer had walked up 

 on the dam, probably to take a look at what was below, 

 and on the other side, when his foot slipped down between 

 the poles, and he was caught as in a trap. His leg was 

 badly broken, and nearly severed by his efforts to get loose, 

 and the bark of the poles was worn away within reach of 

 liis struggles. He had died where he thus got hung; and 

 there he was, stone dead, but not yet cold, when we found 

 him. He was a fine, fat, young deer, and died by one of 

 the thousand accidents to which the wild animals of the 

 forest, as well as man, are exposed. 



Upon relating this incident to an old hunter, I was told 

 by him that he once, while out in the woods, came upon the 

 skeletons of two large bucks, that, in fighting, had got their 

 horns so interlocked and wedged together, that they could 

 not separate them, and thus, locked in the death grapple, 

 they had starved and died. There lay their bones, the 

 flesh eaten from them by the beasts and carrion birds-, and, 

 bleached by the sun and the storms, the two skulls with the 



1* 



