Two CASES OF BUCK FEVER. 219 



cover the trail of the deer so deep that there would be no following 

 it until we could start them out of their beds, we concluded that 

 one of us should go down the ridge opposite or west of the ridge 

 where we had found the trail of the deer. It was decided that I 

 should take the ridge opposite where the deer were thought to be, 

 and Mr. Corwin was to warn me by firing two shots in rapid suc- 

 cession if he started the deer without getting a shot at them. 



I was familiar with the woods and knew about where the deer 

 would run when started up from any particular point. I had gone 

 down the ridge until I thought that I was below the point where 

 the deer would have crossed had they done so during the night, 

 or if Mr. Corwin should start them. I had neither heard anything 

 from Mr. Corwin nor seen anything of the deer trail. I had given 

 up hope of Mr. Corwin starting the deer so they Would be likely 

 to come my way. 



I had struck the trail of a single deer that was going down a 

 short sawtooth point or a short spur of the main ridge. . The track 

 had been made during the night when it was still snowing and in 

 some places it was hard to follow the trail owing to so much snow 

 falling. The track led down this spur in the direction of low 

 hemlocks. I was working my way very carefully thinking that the 

 deer had gone down into those low hemlocks to get shelter from 

 the storm and were lying down in the thicket. The thicket was 

 just over a little cone or ridge so that I could not see the surface 

 of the ground and I was dead sure that I would catch my game 

 lying in his bed. 



In a moment a dozen deer came irito sight as suddenly as 

 though they had come up out of the ground and I was suddenly 

 taken with one of the worst fevers that any man ever had. I at 

 once began firing into the bunch. The deer seemingly did not notice 

 the report of the gun but kept steadily on their trail. I knew the 

 condition I was in and that I was shooting wide of the mark. I 

 then singled out one of the largest deer, a good sized buck, and 

 tried to pick out a spot on the back of his shoulders as though I 

 was shooting at a target. I could not keep the gun within range 

 of the deer by ten feet, so when I thought the gun had jumped 

 into line, I pulled the trigger. The deer made no alteration in its 



