wrptcmbcr, 1865. i Closc Sliootmg. 203 



ing, Ebierbing crept across the plain, makinf^ it impossible for the 

 deer to cross in front of a little lake near by without exposing them- 

 selves to his clear aim. The hunters, however, found themselves in the 

 embarrassing position that neither one could fire without endangering 

 the life of the other. Just as Hall had taken aim, he remembered 

 Ebierbing, dropped his rifle, and hid himself behind the rocks at the 

 moment when Ebierbing's ball which had passed through the first 

 deer, whizzed olose to his head. Seeing, however, that his com- 

 ])anion had now, in turn, hid himself, he shot the second deer, giv- 

 ing Ebierbing the pleasure of a possible experience like his own. 

 Each felt that he had made a narrow escape. 



Securing three more from the next herd, they skinned their 

 prizes, and, as the sun was now setting, determined to remain and 

 cache them the next day. For their sleeping-place they built a wall 

 of stones on the windward side of a bed of moss on which, after 

 smoking, chatting, and supping on raw venison, the}" fell comfortably 

 asleep, each having one of the deer-skins for his bed, another for his 

 pillow, and a third for his coverlid. They awoke to find their cover- 

 ings hard frozen, ice to the thickness of three-eighths of an inch having 

 formed during the night on the pools of water near them ; but at an 

 early hour they made their caches of the deer, loaded the packs of 

 skins upon their backs, and continued the hunt throughout a second 

 day, securing, however, but one more animal. 



Neither the fatigue of the journey nor the excitement through 

 which Hall had passed prevented him from writing while on his 

 rough bed: 



The evening glorious, the clear sky, the moon, the stars! and now, at 9^., the 

 aurora grandly playing its fantastic tricks. Was ever man more blest with an 



