178 



THE ADIRONDACK. 



place, so still and steady did it lie in his bronze hand. 

 A flash — a quick sharp report, and the noble deer 

 bounded several feet into the air, then wheeled and 

 sprang into the forest. He had shot directly over my 

 head, and the mad bound of the animal told too well 

 that the unerring bullet had struck near the life. 

 Rowing hastily to the spot, we could find no traces 

 of blood, but Mitchell, with his eye bent on the 

 ground, paced backward and forward without saying 

 a word. At length he stopped and peering down 

 amid the long grass, said, " Here is blood." How he 

 discovered it is a perfect mystery to me, for the grass 

 was a foot long and very thick, while the drop 

 which had fallen on the roots of a single blade, I 

 never should have noticed, and if I had, have con- 

 sidered it a mere discoloration of the leaf, fac 

 similies of which occurred at every step. The keen 

 hawk eye of the Indian hunter, however, could not be 

 deceived, and he simply remarked, " She is hit deep, 

 or she would have bled more," and struck on the 

 trail. But this baffled even, for the marsh was 

 covered with deer tracks, while the bushes into which 

 the wounded one had sprung were a perfect matting 

 of laurels and low shrubs. There was no mor^ blood 



