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it is not sufficiently plentiful to make an empty-lmnded 

 hunt of a few hours' duration a thing of such rarity as 

 to be practically unknown. There are few localities where 

 deer are not still to be found within easy reach of the set- 

 tler's rifle, although in the more settled regions they are 

 becoming scarcer every year ; for instance, four, yes, even 

 two years ago, venison was frequently brought into our 

 own growing little city for sale during the cooler months ; 

 but now it is more seldom seen, and has become one of 

 the luxuries. 



Yet, ever and anon, several graceful, dainty deer are 

 seen trotting timidly across the clearings close to the newly 

 erected dwelling-houses, and sometimes they, like more 

 civilized animals, get into mischief, leaping fences and 

 nipping off" the young growth of the orange trees, or eat- 

 ing off" corn fodder as it stands in the fields. These pilfer- 

 ings are usually carried on at night, and so the nimble 

 marauders act with impunity until, their haunts being 

 discovered, they meet leaden bullets flying around them. 

 One unhappy deer, not long since, was so torn and mutil- 

 ated in leaping a barbed wire fence as to be unable to leap 

 out of the inclosure, and the poor creature, thus self-en- 

 trapped, soon met its death at the hands of the owner 

 of the trees it had helped to "nip in the bloom of their 

 youth." 



There is a little gray squirrel that is met with in both 

 hammock and piney woods, darting like a light shadow 

 over the ground, or leaping with wonderful rapidity from 

 branch to branch and tree to tree. He is a good deal like 

 the "wicked flea," one moment he is there, the next he 

 isn't, and unless one's eyes are very sharp and quick he 

 will vanish entirely while the gun is waving wildly in the 

 air, striving for a " sight." This pretty, nimble little fel- 

 low is very good eating, and makes a first-class stew ; but, 



