94 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



disturbed ground. After the loss of twenty minutes I 

 fortunately again struck the trail, which, to my sur- 

 prise, led in a reverse direction ; clearly indicating that 

 the deer had retraced his steps probably in the same 

 track, and thus, by this cunning device, almost suc- 

 ceeded in eluding his pursuer. The trail of the animal 

 now became more irregular, and the tell-tale track of 

 the wounded limb greatly assisted me in distinguishing 

 his footsteps from those of his fellows, which on every 

 opportunity he selected; but all having failed to 

 throw me off so far, the deer adopted a new ruse, 

 which under other circumstances would have been 

 eminently agreeable to the sportsman, but in this in- 

 stance made me so savage that I would have indulged 

 in the amiable weakness of breaking the gun-stock 

 over the nearest tree, if it had not been that my 

 friend might not see the joke of his rifle being thus 

 treated. 



So intent was I watching the tracks that I did 

 not observe the exhausted deer had halted. Becoming 

 alarmed by my near approach, and deeming it advisable 

 to make a fresh effort to place distance between us, he 

 again put forth renewed energy. The brush, unfortu- 

 nately, was so remarkably dense, that although I got 

 several glimpses of his tawny hide, still never for suffi- 

 cient length of time to get a fair chance to shoot, and 

 I was unwillingly compelled to keep tracking. About 

 fifty yards from where I stood a small river, not over 

 ninety feet across, named the Ambaras, wound its 

 sluggish, peaceful way towards its parent stream, the 

 Wabash, and direct for the nearest part of this river 

 the deer had gone. Still I could not bring myself to 

 believe that a buck at this season, with plenty of ice 



