THE AMERICAN DEER. 231 



or as it is called still-hunting, in the north hunting the 

 Hart manfully and gallantly with fleet horses, and a cry 

 of well-matched and tuneful fox-hounds, with the blythe 

 view halloa, and the cheery blast of the key-bugle, with 

 the chivalric sportsmen of the sunny south and last, 

 not least, coursing him with a leash of fleet greyhounds, 

 or, better yet, a leash of the tall, wire-haired, rough- 

 coated deer-hounds of the Scottish Highlands, over the 

 wild and verdant prairies of the West. 



The first of these methods is the only one, which the 

 rough, craggy, and mountainous character of the forest- 

 land frequented by deer in the Northern States, which 

 horses cannot for the most part traverse at all, certainly 

 nt)t at speed, will allow the hunter to adopt ; and if it 

 lack the maddening excitement of galloping over bush, 

 bank, and scaur, taking bold leaps, and striding irresist- 

 ible over ravine or gully, over fallen tree or rough rail- 

 fence, with the fierce music of the hounds stirring your 

 brain almost to madness, it requires at least so many 

 qualities of skill and science, such quickness of eyesight, 

 such instinctive calculation of causes and effects, such 

 Indian-like power of following the faintest trail, of 

 detecting by the displacement of a yellow leaf, by the 

 disordered foliage of a broken bush, or the broken bark 

 on a frayed sapling, whither and when, and at what pace 

 the object of pursuit has passed that way, that by the 

 consciousness of, and confidence in your own self-power, 

 self-energy, and* self-sufficiency to all emergencies, that 



