i8 />'/(,' (/./.I/A' SHOOTING 



explosive, and the merest touch will make them 'go off' with a 

 report loud enough to be heard in London. 



Damp weather is, then, the first essential for successful still 

 hunting ; but even then, when the leaves crush noiselessly under 

 foot and fallen twigs bend instead of snapping, the utmost 

 patience and care are necessary. 



With a pair of good shooting boots, English made, with 

 wide welts and plenty of nails in them boots, for choice, which 

 would run about two to the acre with his rifle over his shoulder, 

 and a handful of loose change in the pocket of his new 

 American overalls, any average young man may go confidently 

 into the best woods in America, certain that in a fortnight 

 of hard work he will see nothing except what Van Dyke calls 

 ' the long jumps ' (i.e. tracks of startled deer) or those waving 

 white flags popping over the fallen logs which those gunners 

 only may hope to stop who habitually shoot snipe with a 

 Winchester. 



The man who is generally successful as a still hunter is he 

 who knows the haunts and habits of the deer, who travels 

 slowly in the woods, constantly stopping to listen and look 

 ahead, who not only takes care to wear clothes of the softest 

 material, with moccasins or tennis-shoes upon his feet, but who 

 always has a hand ready to move an obstinate briar or obstruc- 

 tive rampike gently out of his way before it has time to rasp 

 against his clothes or trip him and pitch him upon his head. 



The first thing to remember in entering upon this sport is 

 that every live thing in the woods is watching and listening at 

 least three parts of its waking life, and that your only chance of 

 success is to catch it off its guard in those rare moments when 

 it is either feeding or moving, and therefore making a noise 

 itself. A moving object is more easily seen than a stationary 

 one, therefore do you stand or sit still from time to time 

 among thick cover on some ridge or other commanding posi- 

 tion, and watch the woods, peer through the thickets, and make 

 certain that they are untenanted, before you blunder through 

 them. When a log upon which your eyes have been dwelling 



