DEER-STALKING. 101 



tion not to be beaten, except night overtook me, and 

 very probably with the hope to show the neighbours 

 that a Britisher was good for some purposes, I fol- 

 lowed the track with unusually willing steps and light 

 heart. To get into the corn-fields the buck had 

 jumped the snake fence and afterwards doubled back, 

 and as the wind did not suit for me to enter at the 

 same place, I made a considerable detour. In my 

 right barrel I had sixteen buck shot, about the size 

 that would run one hundred to the pound, and a 

 bullet in the left. As the corn had not yet been 

 gathered, and the undergrowth of cuckle burs and 

 other weeds was tolerably dense, I had little doubt 

 but that I should get sufficiently close to make use of 

 the former. An old stager like my quarry, I knew 

 from experience would be desperately sharp, so with 

 the utmost caution I advanced up wind, eyes and ears 

 strained to the utmost tension. I had only got about 

 a fourth of the field traversed, when I heard some 

 voices right to windward encouraging a dog to hold a 

 pig. The noise of the men, dog, and porker, I con- 

 cluded would start the game off in the reverse direc- 

 tion, so hurriedly retracing my steps, I regained the 

 fence, got over it, and took my stand at an angle that 

 stretched close to a slough which was densely covered 

 with a growth of various aquatic weeds and bushes. 

 In about five minutes after gaining my position, I was 

 greeted by a sight of the beauty, who hopped the 

 fence where there was a broken rail, and gaining the 

 opening, for a moment halted, then tossing up his 

 head, offered me a fair cross shot nearly eighty yards 

 distant. Pitching my gun well in front, I pulled the 

 trigger, and well I knew not fruitlessly, for he gave a 



