JOSEril HALL OF WHITLEY EIDGE. 315 



wait until he rose. In this instance I had a rest 

 against the oak tree ; and I was aiming at his head, 

 though not quite determined to shoot, when up he 

 stood broadside to me, and stretched himself. A 

 moment so fair for a vital blow was of course not 

 lost. I fired, and the buck fell with a ball through 

 the region of the heart. 



On another day on which I was out with Joseph 

 Hall, a woodcutter reported three bucks at feed not 

 far from us. We accordingly went in that direc- 

 tion, and discovered them feeding towards us. We 

 couched in the long heather, and they came on di- 

 rectly to where we were ; two were bare bucks, but 

 the third was a decent deer. After watching them 

 some time they came within shot ; but the younger 

 deer were always in danger till the buck I wanted 

 was within fifty yards. I whispered to Hall, " Your 

 shoulder," a demand he well understood, when I 

 rested my rifle over it, and aimed at the deer ; but, 

 a piece of fern falling across the barrel, I had next to 

 whisper, " The fern is in the way." He comprehended 

 at once which piece of fern it was, and quietly reached 

 his hand beneath, and pulled it from the root. The 

 deer then sprung up and fell dead with the bullet 

 through the spine of the neck. There is no better 

 deerstalker than Joseph Hall, and no man who knows 

 a deer better. Of all the forest keepers he certainly 

 was the best I ever met, and never in any one par- 

 ticle did I find the information he gave me incorrect. 

 Whatever he said as to the condition or age of a deer 

 was always right, and he was ever most anxious 

 that I should not be disappointed in my warrant. 

 Although I can stalk a deer, and though I know the 

 best buck when I get up to him, and am well ac- 



