82 THE ADIRONDACK. 



bent down their heads, and made at me at full speed. 

 The bushes and saplins snapped under them like 

 pipe-stems. Just before they reached me, I stepped 

 behind a tree, and fired as they jumped by. The ball 

 went clear through one, and lodged in the other." 



Cheney kills about seventy deer per annum. He 

 has none of the roughness of the hunter ; but is one 

 of the mildest, most unassuming, pleasant men you 

 will meet with anywhere. Among other things, he 

 told me of once following a bear all day, and treeing 

 him at night when it was so dark he could not see to 

 shoot ; then sitting down at the root, to wait till morn- 

 ing that he might kill him. But, after awhile, all 

 being still, he fell asleep, and did not wake till day- 

 light. Opening his eyes in astonishment, he looked 

 up for the bear, but the cunning rascal had gone. 

 Taking advantage of his enemy's slumbers, he had 

 crawled down and waddled off. Cheney said he 

 never felt so flat in his life, to be outwitted thus, and 

 by a bear. 



With one anecdote illustrating his coolness, I 

 will bid his hunting adventures adieu. He was 

 once hunting alone by a little lake, when his 

 dogs brought a noble buck into the water. Cock- 



