AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 287 



haunches. He quickly recovered, took it in good 

 shape, and now dashed into a clump of oak grubs 

 that still held their dry leaves. Tearing and forcing 

 his way through these, lie forged ahead with all his 

 remaining strength and plunged headlong into 

 another fallen tree-top. In this he struggled, trying 

 to force his way out until he sank upon the ground 

 from sheer loss of blood and expired. From where 

 he stood when I shot, to where he finally fell was 

 about 300 yards. 



I stepped the distance from where I stood to where 

 the deer was when I fired and found it to be 267 

 yards. Taking up his trail, I found the ground 

 copiously sprinkled with blood where he came down 

 at the end of his first jump, and the leaves and brush 

 were crimsoned with it from there to where he gave 

 up the struggle. On coming up to him I found 

 that my bullet had drifted slightly to the left, owing 

 to the force of a strong wind which was blowing at 

 the time, and cut his throat almost as neatly as I 

 could have done it with my hunting-knife. The 

 oesophagus was entirely severed and the thorax 

 nearly so. His body was sadly bruised and lacer- 

 ated by the terrible ordeal through which he had 

 passed, and I concluded that he must have gone 

 stone blind when the bullet struck him. In no 

 other way can I account for his strange conduct. I 

 saved his head and had it mounted as a memento 

 of one of the most remarkable scratch shots I ever 

 made. 



